Pokemon Legends: Region Zero
by devilrose87
Summary: Crystal, a young girl from New Bark Town, finally leaves on her pokemon journey. But something sinister is brewing in the Johto region. And what's the deal with the strange young girl claiming to be her boydguard? It all comes together in Region Zero.
1. Chapter 1: A Stranger Arrives

**Pokemon Legends: Region Zero**

**Chapter 1**

**A Stranger Arrives**

It was a quiet day in New Bark Town, the town in Johto closest to Kanto. A quick trip through the nearby water route would take you into the neighbouring region. On this quiet day, in the backyard of a fairly modest household, a small bird pokemon called pidgey was perched on the branch of a tree with a small, brown furred mammalian pokemon called sentret.

The pidgey in the tree was only a baby and had yet to try flying on its own. The sentret standing next to it was pointing excitedly and patting it on the back, encouraging to try flying to the ground below. The pidgey looked nervous and looked down fearfully. It didn't want to, but the sentret insisted. Eventually, the pidgey gave in. Spreading its wings, the pidgey jumped off the branch and flapped its tiny wings frantically. It flew erratically through the air, completely unable to control its direction. It was about to take a nosedive toward the ground when a pair of human hands caught it.

"Careful there!" a young, blue haired girl said to the pokemon as she held it up to her face. "You could hurt yourself if you hit the ground like that. Why don't you try from a lower altitude or practice flapping your wings first?" The pidgey chirped happily and nodded its head. The girl giggled.

"Well, just be careful from now on, okay?" she said to it. "You're lucky I was just getting ready to go out on an errand." She reached down with one hand and patted a trio of pokeballs clipped to her belt. "These three need to be delivered today." The pidgey tilted its head and peered at the girl curiously, wondering what she was talking about. It soon lost interest and hopped off on its own.

A voice then yelled out to the girl from the nearby house. "Crystal! There's someone at the door for you!"

"Coming, Mom!" the girl called back. "Must be Ethan," she said to herself, then headed toward the house.

Crystal is a young girl living alone with her mother in New Bark Town. Her mother, Roxy, ran a ranch of sorts in the town which the pidgey and sentret were part of. Along with her mother they raised pokemon, mostly smaller ones, in their rather large backyard. They mostly adopted abandoned or weak pokemon and raised them themselves. Occassionally, the pokemon would be given away to young trainers.

Today was different, though. Today, Crystal would be delivering three very special pokemon she and her mother had raised. But first there was her sudden company to deal with. Crystal rushed into the house, expecting to find a certain young boy waiting for her.

The boy she was expecting was nowhere in sight. Instead, standing at the front door, was a blonde haired, red eyed girl that Crystal had never seen before. The girl was wearing a red skirt, a blue top that looked more like the top half of a one-piece swimsuit, and a red vest over it.

"Umm... hi?" Crystal blinked. "Have we met before?"

"Nope," the girl replied quickly. "So you're Crystal? Nice pajamas."

"Th-thanks..." Crystal replied sheepishly. She had completely forgotten she was still wearing her pajamas. When she had received word of her errand from her mother she had raced outside to collect the three pokemon without thinking.

"Well, anyway, my name's Angela," the girl said, casually introducing herself. "I'm going to be your bodyguard from now on apparently."

"Oh. I see." It took a moment for what Angela said to sink in for Crystal. She blinked in confusion a few times and then said, "Wait, what?"

"Isn't that great, dear!" Her mother said enthusiastically. "You'll have a bodyguard for your first errand! She even has her own pokemon to protect you with!" Crystal glanced downward. Sure enough, there were two pokeballs clipped to a belt at the girl's waist.

"But I'm only going to the lab! I don't NEED a bodyguard!" Crystal protested. She then pointed a finger at Angela and said, "And what gives you the right to come in here and declare you're my bodyguard anyway! I don't even know you!"

"I came all the way here from the Hoenn region on special orders from May herself!" Angela replied in a huff. "If May says you need a bodyguard then you need a bodyguard!"

"Wh-what!" Crystal said in disbelief.

"Well if May says so, you can't argue with May," Roxy said.

"You're siding with HER!" Crystal asked incredulously.

"Don't raise your voice with me!" Roxy shot back, resting her hands on her hips. "And there's certainly no harm in having someone else go with you, right? Now go get changed. The professor is waiting for you."

"Fine..." Crystal replied, sighing in defeat. It was rare for Crystal to get into a fight with her mother, who was generally eccentric and easily exciteable. But when it did happen she would usually back down fairly quickly.

Leaving her mother and and her strange self-proclaimed bodyguard in the kitchen, Crystal rushed up to her room to get changed. She changed out of her pajamas and into a pair of yellow and black bike shorts, a red tank top, and a white jacket. Finally, to top it all off, she grabbed a yellow hat and pulled it over her head. It was the kind of outfit she usually wore while out with the pokemon in the back yard, but she didn't think it would be too out of place on her errand either. Her choice of clothing was inspired by her mother, who also had a tendency to dress similarly.

As she was getting changed, many questions filled her head concerning Angela. Did she really come from Hoenn? Was she really sent by May? Why would May even send a bodyguard for her? She didn't even know May! Or Angela, for that matter. She couldn't think of any reason for this girl, who was definitely a stranger in town, to take an interest in being her bodyguard. The possibility of Angela being a pokemon thief entered Crystal's mind, though if Angela was already a trainer then there would be easier ways for her to steal pokemon from them.

_The easiest question to answer would probably be whether or not she's really from Hoenn, since her pokemon would likely be from there if she was,_ Crystal thought to herself. She took a quick look over herself in the dresser mirror, making sure nothing was out of place, then nodded to herself. "Right. As soon as we're outside I should question her, starting with her pokemon," she said to herself. She then finally went back downstairs.

"Looking much better now!" her mother said to her when she finally came back downstairs.

Crystal forced a smile and said, "Thanks." Then she grabbed Angela by the hand and lead her toward the front door.

"Say hello to the professor for me!" Roxy called out after her daughter.

* * *

><p>"So who are you really?" Crystal asked Angela as soon as they were outside.<p>

"I already told you!" Angela replied indignantly, folding her arms in front of her. "My name is Angela and I was sent by May to be your bodyguard!"

"And you're from Hoenn, right?" Crystal asked her. Angela nodded. "So then... are your pokemon from Hoenn?"

"Of course!" Angela replied, then took one of her pokeballs in each hand. "Bitey! Gorey! Come on out!"

Crystal cringed. _Bitey? Gorey?_

Two long, slender pokemon were released from the pokeballs Angela was holding. The first was a blue, serpentine pokemon with a disproportionally large head and a mouth full of sharp teeth. It was easy for Crystal to see why the pokemon was called Bitey, as unimaginative as the name was. Gorey, on the other hand, was a long, slender, pink fish pokemon with a long and thin mouth. Crystal couldn't imagine why she was called Gorey.

_They do look kinda foreign though,_ Crystal thought, tilting her head from side to side as she looked over the two pokemon.

Angela grinned and set her hands on her hips. "They're a huntail and gorebyss, incase you didn't know!" she said to Crystal. "They're still kinda small though 'cause they're still young."

"Definitely foreign..." Crystal mumbled, nodding to herself.

"-What does that have to do with anything!-" Bitey demanded angrily while trying to glare up at Crystal from his sprawled position on the ground.

"-Yeah! What does that have to do with anything!-" Gorey echoed in agreement. Of course, Crystal didn't know what either of them were saying.

"Anyway, let's get to the laboratory already so we can get this errand done with," Angela said impatiently.

"We're already here," Crystal replied, pointing to the building to her left. Angela looked at the building, which was large but looked like it was in need of maintenance. The paint was chipping off and one of the front windows was cracked. The sign overhead was still perfectly readable, however, and confirmed that the building was indeed Professor Elm's Pokemon Lab. Looking back the way they came, Angela could still see Crystal's house. It was practically in throwing distance from where they were now.

"New Bark Town is kinda... small, isn't it?" Angela asked.

"I don't think the population even reaches triple digits," Crystal replied with a slight smile. "On the bright side, everyone knows everyone."

Angela's suspicions about New Bark Town being small - even moreso than most small, rural towns with a pokemon research facility - were further confirmed when she went inside. The lab was pretty quiet. And empty. There wasn't a soul to be seen as they walked through the middle of the building. The only individuals in the lab, aside from themselves and the two pokemon dragging themselves across the floor behind Angela, were two men in labcoats standing in front of a computer at the far end of the lab.

"Did everyone else have the day off?" Angela asked quietly.

"This is everyone," Crystal replied. Indeed, the young, glasses-wearing man seated at the computer with a lab coat draped over him was Professor Elm himself. The younger aide standing behind him, who didn't even seem like he'd be in his twenties yet, was his one and only aide.

"The professor must not be very good then..." Angela commented. Crystal shot her a sharp look but said nothing as they were now easily within earshot of the professor. In fact, Elm had heard their footsteps approaching finally and looked up from his computer.

"Crystal!" Elm said as he suddenly stood up and rushed over to her, nearly knocking his aide over in the process. "You brought the pokemon right? RIGHT!"

"Of course I did!" Crystal replied, backing a few steps away from the professor to give herself some personal space. She then reached down and took the three pokeballs from her belt. "See? They're right here."

"Oh, thank you!" Elm replied and breathed a sigh of relief. "I was just talking to Ethan's mother earlier. He's planning to leave on a pokemon journey and needs a pokemon. With you delivering those pokemon for me to research today I thought I could give him one and have him raise it for me, but then I was worried you might have forgot or they might not be ready and..."

"Ethan is leaving on a pokemon journey...?" Crystal asked quietly. Everyone looked at her curiously when they noticed the saddened tone of her voice, causing her to blush and quickly correct herself saying, "W-well you know what they say, right? All boys leave home eventually!"

"Girls too," Angela said flatly.

But must don't go as far as you did! Crystal thought as she glanced over at Angela. Looking back at Elm she cleared her throat and asked, "So when is Ethan coming by anyway?" Before Elm could answer, a boy's voice interrupted them.

"He's already here." Everyone looked to the opposite end of the lab to the now open door at the entrance. A young boy wearing a red jacket, black capris, and a black and yellow hat was leaning against the inside of the door. His arms were crossed and a pair of shades with orange lenses covered his eyes.

"Ethan!" Crystal said in disbelief.

"Close enough," Ethan replied, grinning as he turned to the group. He reached up and pulled down his glasses so he could look out over them. "Because from today on I'll be known as Ethan, the Gold Trainer!"

"Gold trainer?" Crystal asked, blinking in confusion.

"Who's this weirdo?" Angela asked Crystal.

"That's Ethan, he's a friend of mine," Crystal replied. Angela rolled her eyes.

"Friend. Sure," she said quietly. Meanwhile, as he finally neared the group, Ethan glanced over at Angela and raised an eyebrow.

"Who's the new girl?" he asked Crystal. Angela responded first, however.

"I'm her new bodyguard," Angela replied. Crystal's hand went straight to her forehead.

"Bodyguard?" Ethan raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. "Well, whatever you say. This town could use a strong trainer. And I don't plan on sticking around." He then looked to Elm and said, "So where are those pokemon, anyway?"

"Your timing couldn't be better, Ethan! Crystal here just arrived to deliver the pokemon!" he said, then gestured to an empty table. "Crystal, could you let the pokemon out and put them on that table?"

"Sure," Crystal replied. She walked over to the table and took the three pokeballs from her belt, then proceeded to release them one by one.

The first pokemon to appear on the table was a four-legged, grass-type pokemon with a leaf on its head. The pokemon looked around at the people gathered with a disinterested look on its face, then reached up to comb back the leaf on its head. A line of seeds encircled the pokemon's neck, giving it the appearance of wearing a necklace.

"This is chikorita," Crystal explained. "He's a grass-type pokemon. Kinda vain. He gets really distressed if he gets any dirt or mud on himself, especially on his leaf." Ethan nodded, but said nothing. Crystal could tell by the look on his face that he wasn't too interested in a vain grass-type pokemon.

The next pokemon Crystal released was a small, black-furred mammalian pokemon with a long snout and small eyes. On its back were several small red dots. Seeing the chikorita next to it, the pokemon grinned and flames shot up from those dots on its back. The chikorita was startled into falling off the table.

"Umm... this one is a cyndaquil..." Crystal sheepishly explained to Ethan. "He's a bit of a troublemaker and is usually tormenting the chikorita. You can probably tell what type he is." A grin spread across Ethan's face almost instantly. He already knew which pokemon he wanted.

Even though it was pretty clear Ethan had already made his choice, Crystal proceeded to release the third pokemon. A blue reptilian pokemon with red spines along its back appeared. The pokemon's eyes immediately narrowed into a glare as it looked around the room. Its gaze eventually came to rest on Crystal and it folded its small arms.

"Finally, this one is a totodile." A slight smirk crossed Crystal's lips as she gestured to the small pokemon. "He likes to act tough but really he wouldn't hurt a fly. I think he feels like he has a reputation to keep because of his species."

"I bet he evolves into something really mean-looking!" Angela said excitedly.

"-I don't see what's so special about him.-" Bitey said, glaring at the totodile. "-I bet I could swallow that thing whole!-"

"You could say that..." Crystal replied to Angela.

"Whether or not something looks mean doesn't matter when it comes to pokemon. What really matters is the bond that exists between pokemon and trainer!" Ethan walked over to the table and picked the cyndaquil up in both hands. "And I have a feeling you and me are going to go far, little guy! From now on, I'm calling you Crimson!"

"-Crimson, huh?-" the cyndaquil repeated curiously, then shrugged. "-Works for me.-"

"An excellent choice!" Elm said. "Now, Ethan, could you come over here for a moment? There's something I would like you to do for me." Elm motioned for Ethan to come over to the computer so he could show him something on the monitor. Meanwhile, Angela approached the table so she could take a closer look at the totodile.

"So what does this evolve into anyway?" she asked Crystal. The totodile raised an eyebrow at her, wondering why she cared so much.

"Umm... well..." Crystal pondered how to explain it for a moment and scratched her head. "He just... gets bigger and meaner, really..." Crystal said.

Angela turned to Crystal and pointed at the pokemon. "I want it."

Somehow I'm getting the feeling that she shouldn't have it, Crystal thought. To explain it to Angela, she said, "Professor Elm needs the rest of these pokemon for his research."

Angela pouted and then started down through the lab. "Bitey, Gorey, come on! We're going fishing!" she called out to her pokemon, then stormed out of the lab with the two pokemon in tow.

"What's her problem?" Crystal wondered. She shrugged and looked over toward Elm and Ethan. Elm was explaining the errand he wanted Ethan to run, asking him to visit someone named Mr. Pokemon. Crystal couldn't help thinking it was a weird name. However, she realized that she didn't need to stick around. Her job was to deliver the pokemon and she had done that, so now it was time to leave.

"Umm..." Ethan and the professor looked up from the computer as Crystal began to speak. "I guess I'll be leaving now. Good luck on your journey, Ethan!"

"You don't need to worry about me!" Ethan said with a grin. "By the time I return to New Bark Town, I'll be the first trainer ever to beat the Johto Elite Four!"

"I don't know, they're pretty tough..." Crystal said to him. The Johto Elite Four was formed just over two years ago. Though it currently shared the same building with the Kanto Elite Four at Indigo Plateau, the Johto Elite Four were a separate group and said to be the most powerful Elite Four there were. They had yet to be defeated and even the most powerful gym leader, Clair of Blackthorn City, a gym leader said to be able to hold her own against the Elite Four, was unable to beat even one member of the new Johto Elite Four.

"I'll just have to be even tougher then!" Ethan replied.

"If you say so," Crystal said. "Anyway, I'll see you around then!" Crystal then quickly left the lab. No one in the lab seemed to notice the darkened figure peering in through the window...

* * *

><p>After leaving the lab, Crystal returned home. She was alone this time and Angela was nowhere in sight. When she got home she went straight to the backyard, carrying a bag of pokemon feed she had retrieved from the house. A group of pokemon comprised of various species from all around Johto approached Crystal as soon as they noticed she had food.<p>

"Sometimes you'd almost think all pokemon were the same," Crystal said, shaking her head. She immediately set to pouring out food into dishes so the pokemon could feed. Among the pokemon gathered were the pidgey and sentret from before, hoothoot, a pair of poliwags, a swinub, snubbull, mareep, natu, wooper, and smoochum. All were pokemon that were found abandoned in the wild, either by trainers or by other pokemon. Some were brought in as babies, left to fend for themselves after their parents were caught by other trainers.

While Crystal was feeding the pokemon, her mother came to the door. She was quiet and her presence went unnoticed by Crystal or the pokemon. Roxy scanned the backyard, looking for someone.

"Where did your bodyguard go?" Roxy asked her daughter. Crystal stopped what she was doing and turned to her.

"You mean Angela? She went fishing for some reason," Crystal said. She then quickly finished putting out food, emptying the bag into one last dish. The smoochum - a small, babyish pokemon with large lips - approached the dish and picked up a single piece of kibble, which it popped into its mouth and sucked on noisily. The piece of kibble stuck in its mouth made it look like it was sucking on a pacifier.

Roxy shook her head. "A proper bodyguard shouldn't be leaving her guardee so readily. What if someone were to attack our house while she was gone!"

Crystal shook her head. "Like someone really would..."

"Hmm..." Roxy studied her daughter's composure. "Crystal... is something bothering you?"

Crystal blinked and looked back at her mother again. "Huh?"

"You sound upset about something," her mother said. "If something's bothering you, you can tell me about it."

"Well..." Crystal explained to her mother what happened at the lab, about how Ethan was leaving to become a pokemon trainer. After Crystal's explanation, Roxy smiled to herself.

"Well, dear, why don't you go on a journey, too?" her mother suggested. "In fact, I think it would be a good idea if you and Angela took the remaining pokemon you gave Elm. He needs trainers to raise those, afterall. You could take the chikorita and Angela could take the totodile."

"I couldn't do that!" Crystal replied. "What about the pokemon here? Someone has to look after them!"

"I can look after them just fine. If you took a few of them with you it'd be even less work, too," Roxy pointed out to her. "And wouldn't it be fun if you had your own pokemon to battle against Ethan with?"

"I guess, but I'm not all that into battling..."

"Then perhaps you'd be better suited to pokemon who are good at disabling enemy pokemon instead?" her mother suggested, then reached down to pick up the feeding smoochum. "Like this one. She learns an interesting little kissing attack that puts enemy pokemon to sleep!"

"Hmm..." Crystal was slowly coming around to the idea of leaving with pokemon now and turned to inspect the rest of the feeding pokemon. "A mareep could disable pokemon with paralyzing electricity, stantler and hoothoot can learn sleep-inducing attacks like Hypnosis, and I think a wooper can yawn stuff to sleep..."

"Now you're getting the idea, dear," her mother said, putting the smoochum down and clasping her hands together. "Now let's get you some pokeballs and put those pokemon in them! If Ethan is going to become a pokemon trainer then my daughter won't be far behind!"

"I don't think I can be as good as Ethan..." Crystal quietly admitted. "But if he's leaving, then I won't stick around either! I'll train my new pokemon so I can go anywhere I want!"

"That's the spirit, Crystal!" Her mother said enthusiastically. "In fact, I've kept a pokegear set aside for just such an occassion!"

Crystal and her mother then went into the house and set to work getting her ready to leave on her pokemon journey.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, inside the pokemon lab, two pokeballs remained sitting on the table. Elm had put the pokemon back inside them before deciding to take a break. The only other employee in the lab was on break as well, meaning the lab was now empty. It was the perfect time for the red-haired, teenage boy waiting outside the lab to kick in the window and jump inside.<p>

"Heh... guess these guys haven't heard of security before," the boy mused to himself. He made his way over to the table and grabbed the two pokeballs. "This is much easier than trying to steal pokemon from that ranch or whatever. Even weak pokemon can be a pain in large numbers. But stealing from an unguarded, run-down lab like this is a piece of cake.

The boy clipped his two pokeballs to his belt and headed for the exit. There hardly seemed to be a need for stealth now. That line of thinking would soon cost him, though. For as soon as he opened the front door he almost ran straight into a brown-haired girl wearing a mob cap. The two stared at each other in silence for a moment until the girl suddenly shrieked.

"THIEF! THERE'S A THIEF AT THE LAB!" she screamed, then turned to run.

"Shit!" the boy spat. He took off after the girl and quickly proved to be the more athletic of the two, almost catching up with her before suddenly being stopped by a wall of water that rose up around him.

"Now what!" the boy growled. He looked around him and saw the water was swirling around him in a wide circle and rose to just over his head. Two serpent-like pokemon could be seen swimming through the water, moving in a circle around him. "A whirlpool technique. Being used by two pokemon..."

"That's right!" a girl's voice called out to him. "And I wouldn't try moving past that water if I were you. With how fast it's moving it'll easily tear a human to shreds!"

The boy smirked. "Pretty ruthless. And those pokemon... you're the girl that was in the lab before, aren't you?"

"That's right, too!" the girl replied. Angela was standing several feet back from the whirlpool with her arms crossed and a smirk on her face. "I'll be taking those pokemon back now! Bitey, Gorey, get 'em!"

"-Got it!-" the two pokemon called out in unison. The two then shot out of the water, aiming to strike the boy trapped in the center. Gorey's mouth cut across the back of his black jacket, but he managed to lean back and avoid being hit by Bitey.

"Attacking a trainer... hmph, I was right to call you ruthless," the trainer said to Angela. "Who would have guessed? But, then, you're a foreigner, aren't you?"

"What about it?" Angela asked in a defensive tone.

The boy reached for a pokeball on his belt, one that wasn't stolen from the lab. "Then you and your pokemon have something in common..."

"What's that?"

"You're both fish out of water!" The boy aimed his pokeball at the base of the whirlpool and pressed the release button. The pokeball opened and a red beam fired out and materialized into a small electric rodent. The pokemon was a pichu, though it was colored more like a pikachu.

"Pichu, Thundershock the whirpool!" the boy ordered. The pokemon let out a cry and fired a blast of electricity into the wall of water swirling around it and its trainer, wincing in pain from the power of its own electricity. The two pokemon swimming in the whirlpool cried out in pain shortly after as the electricity passed through the whirlpool, shocking both of them and causing the whirlpool to collapse.

"Hmph." The boy smirked and quickly recalled his pichu. "Good try, but I won't be caught by a weakling like you!" he said. Then he took off running toward the entrance to Route 29 while Angela's pokemon were left high and dry.

"Argh!" Angela stomped her foot against the ground. "He got away with the pokemon I wanted to take!"

"He got away with what?" a voice asked from behind her. Angela turned around to see Crystal standing there, now with a belt that was one pokeball short of a full team.

"Umm... w-well..." Angela stammered.

"You can explain later," Crystal said to her, then looked off toward the nearby route. "We've got a thief to catch."

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: And here we have the start of the Johto Saga of Pokemon Legends, aka Region Zero. This is the last saga I plan to write for the Pokemon Legends series. I want to try to move a bit quicker with this one, cutting out fillerish chapters and pokemon captures. That's one thing I've been pretty guilty of, too many pokemon per trainer. So there won't be many captures this time around. Crystal has almost a full team and Angela is pretty specific in what pokemon she wants. So instead of a lot of captures I'll try to work on developing Crystal's pokemon instead.<p>

Some of you are probably wondering why the rival had a pichu, which he never has in the games. For the rival I plan to have him releasing some pokemon, kinda like Paul in the anime. In the games the rival mentions just getting stronger pokemon to deal with trainers he can't beat, so he strikes me as the type to release pokemon that he considers weak. So he'll probably have a few temporary pokemon over the course of the story.

Next chapter will continue from where this one left off and, hopefully, get into the first gym battle.


	2. Chapter 2: Get That Thief!

**Chapter 2**

**Get That Thief!**

Having stolen the two remaining pokeballs from Professor Elm, the young, unknown thief was now running through Route 29 and heading west toward Cherrygrove City. He was sure he had long since lost his pursuers, but still he kept running and only began to slow down as the city itself began to come into view.

_I'll have to make a brief stop here. I didn't expect a fight and I need to make sure those new pokemon are in top shape too,_ he thought. _After that, I'll run to Violet City and I won't look back. I'll gather the strongest pokemon and defeat weak trainers like that girl!_

As he came up to the city limits, the thief saw a familiar-looking boy ahead of him. It was Ethan, whom the thief had seen while He began to slow his stride until he came to a stop only a few feet away. When Ethan noticed the red haired boy, he stopped as well. The thief glared at him and Ethan raised an eyebrow.

"Problem?" Ethan asked.

"What a waste..." the thief muttered.

"What was that?"

"Giving you a pokemon," the thief replied. Ethan chuckled to himself and shook his head. "Don't you get what I'm saying?"

"Oh, I get what you're saying..." Ethan said with a grin, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses. "But you have no idea just who in the hell you're talking to, do you?"

The thief let out a sigh. "I'm sure you're about to tell me, but I'm..."

Ethan quickly placed the sunglasses over his eyes. "THEN CLEAN THE WAX OUT OF YOUR EARS AND LISTEN UP!" he yelled and raised his hand toward the sky. "In the Johto Region a new legend is on the rise! Today he sets out on his journey, but by tomorrow he'll be rising through the ranks of the Johto League! That very trainer stands before you now!"

Ethan then lowered his hand to the thief. "And the name of that trainer is Ethan, the Gold Trainer!"

"'Gold Trainer'?" The thief snorted. "A weakling like you doesn't get to call themselves something like that."

"Weakling, huh?" Ethan smirked. "And who might you be?"

"It's hardly any of your business, but I'll tell you. My name is Silver." Silver grinned. "And I'm going to be the greatest trainer there is!"

"You say that, but if you're Silver then you'll only ever be second place to me!" Ethan replied.

"If you want to challenge that statement then why don't you throw down?" Silver suggested. "But not here. Let's take this to Route 30."

"You're on!" Ethan replied eagerly. "Of course, since you just got to Cherrygrove, I suppose it'd only be fair to let you stop by the pokecenter first."

Silver grinned. "Why thank you," he said. The two then started toward the Cherrygrove City pokemon center. Though it wasn't Silver's intention to battle a trainer so soon, it seemed to him like a perfectly good chance to test the battle capabilities of his new pokemon.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, on Route 29, Crystal and Angela were currently searching for the thief, Silver. Both trainers were seated on the back of the stantler that Crystal had taken from home and were scanning the terrain around them.<p>

"Still no sign of him... I don't think there's even a kilometer left between here and Cherrygrove, either," Crystal said. "All I can see from here is grass and trees, but that just means he has a lot of places to hide..."

"How do we even know he's hiding?" Angela said impatiently. "He could have kept going to Cherrygrove! We should just go there! Now!" Angela quickly turned and pointed in the direction of Cherrygrove. "Come on! Gogogogo!" she said.

"If we go to Cherrygrove without thoroughly checking this route, he could slip by us by heading back to New Bark Town or heading north toward Blackthorn. That's why I sent Hoothoot out to scout as well."

"And what if he gets to Cherrygrove?" Angela asked.

"That would make our job easier, actually," Crystal replied, smiling lightly. "We could just ask around! If anyone's seen him, they can point us in the right direction. Worst case scenario we could get the police involved and ready to intercept him in Violet City. I'm sure the professor has noticed the pokemon are gone and called authorities by now anyway."

Angela folded her arms and rolled her eyes. "As if he could manage even that..."

Ignoring Angela, Crystal reached out and patted her stantler on the head. "Okay, Stan, let's go forward again." she said. Stan snorted in agreement and quickly moved, galloping off from a dead start. Angela, who had nothing to hold onto at the time, fell off and landed face first on the ground.

"OW!" Angela cried out. Crystal and Stan, the stantler, came to a stop when they realized they left Angela behind. Angela began to slowly stand up, teeth clenched and hands balled into fists. "That... hurt..." she growled through gritted teeth.

"Angela?" Crystal called out curiously. Forcing a smile, Angela quickly turned to face her.

"Ehehehe... guess I should have been holding on," she said sheepishly, then quickly brushed the dirt off her clothing.

"I didn't even realize you weren't holding on," Crystal said to her. "Anyway, hurry up and get back on so we can continue searching."

"Right!" Angela replied, trying to sound enthusiastic. She quickly caught up to the two and hopped on Stan's back, then held onto Crystal to keep from falling off. All the while, though, she was glaring at the back of the stantler's head and thinking of all the things she wanted to do to that pokemon now.

* * *

><p>After a brief stop by the pokemon center, Ethan and Silver moved north onto Route 30. After moving a bit further into the route, putting them near the edge of a raised ledge, the two distanced themselves and prepared to square off.<p>

"One pokemon each?" Silver asked, knowing Ethan received his first pokemon just that day.

"That works for me!" Ethan replied with a grin. He then drew his only pokeball from his belt. "Crimson, let's go!" he called out, releasing the cyndaquil from its pokeball. Flames erupted from his body and rose up along Crimson's back as he appeared, putting on a display.

_I won't use the stolen pokemon. Not yet,_ Silver thought as he drew a pokeball from his belt. _This guy would definitely recognize them and suspect something. So I'll weaken his pokemon with Pichu and finish it with Totodile once the battle is over._ A slight grin tugged at the corner of Silver's mouth. _And then I'll take HIS pokemon, too!_

"Pichu!" Silver called out as he thrust the pokeball forward and released his pokemon. The pichu that appeared looked determined and ready for battle, but at the same time its determined expression seemed forced. It was something that Ethan picked up on almost immediately.

_There's definitely something up with that pichu,_ Ethan thought, eyes examining the pokemon from behind his orange-tinted shades. _Something besides the pikachu-like coloring..._

"Pichu, use Thundershock!" Silver commanded with a sense of authority. The pichu closed its eyes shut as if it were in pain and put its tiny hands to its cheeks. Sparks quickly began to dance around his red cheeks.

"Crimson, counter with a Smokescreen!" Ethan called out to his pokemon. The flames on Crimson's back disappeared for a moment and a thick cloud of smoke began to billow out instead. The smoke stayed low to the ground and quickly covered both battling pokemon, concealing them from view. Pichu launched a blast of electricity shortly after, lightly shocking himself in the process, but the smoke threw him off and he missed his mark entirely. The electricity succeeded only in leaving a scorch mark on the ground, concealed beneath the smoke.

_A pokemon with a technique like Smokescreen would be rather useful for making escapes_, Silver thought, appraising the pokemon he was preparing to steal. _It could have some impressive utility, but is it any good for battling?_

"Now! Tackle it!" Ethan called out. While Pichu was still trying to get his bearings inside the cloud of smoke, Crimson suddenly came up from behind it as if the smoke didn't affect it at all. He tackled Pichu from behind, ramming into his back and sending him rollling out to the edge of the cloud of smoke.

"Your cyndaquil doesn't seem to be affected by the smoke..." Silver noted to Ethan.

"That's right!" Ethan replied with his usual grin. "With that long snout of his, Crimson can sniff out your Pichu in the smoke and hit it just like that!"

"I see," Silver said, making mental note. Ethan's Crimson was sounding like a more desirable pokemon by the second. "Pichu, back into the smoke! Then fire a Thundershock in a burst!"

Pichu got up and shook off the blow, then turned and ran back into the smoke. The smoke was beginning to clear by then, but Pichu still couldn't see his target hiding within it. To compensate, he fired a short burst of electricity in all directions. It wasn't a wide or powerful attack, but it was enough to land a light hit on Crimson. The small jolt of electricity startled him into running out of the smoke.

"Crimson, let's back off and attack with Ember now!" Ethan called out. Crimson turned to Pichu, who was now becoming visible as the smoke continued to clear. Crimson opened his mouth and fired several small fireballs at him from the side. Pichu turned and saw the fireballs coming but was too late to evade. The fireballs peppered Pichu and the ground around him, knocking him off his feet.

"Now let's follow up with Quick Attack and end this!"

"Not so fast! Pichu, Endure!"

Pichu quickly braced himself, eyes closed tightly in anticipation of the pain it was about to feel. Crimson suddenly shot forward in a blur of movement, his motions too fast for the average human or pokemon to follow. Crimson smashed into Pichu's side, causing him to cry out in pain and sending him rolling across the ground. Pichu was left lying completely motionless when he stopped rolling, but soon began to stir and wobbly rose up on his feet. He was pretty shaken but still in the fight.

"Seems I have no choice but to use this now... Pichu, Volt Tackle!" Pichu grimaced and spread out his arms. Electricity began pouring from his cheeks, gathering around him. Pichu then suddenly flung himself at Crimson at high speed. When the two collided Pichu was knocked out instantly and collapsed while Crimson was launched several feet back, electricity coursing over his body. He landed hard and was briefly stunned.

"Whoa! What a powerful attack!" Ethan said with a grin, then looked at Pichu. "Too bad he knocked himself out using it..."

Silver glanced down upon Pichu's unconscious form with a look of annoyance. "Even if it knows a powerful technique like Volt Tackle, a pichu is still just a pichu. Their inability to use powerful techniques without hurting themselves in return renders their entire species weak. They're worthless. I was a fool to believe this one would be any different."

Ethan narrowed his eyes at Silver. "Now that's no way to talk about your pokemon. Especially after it fought so hard to battle for you," Ethan said to him. Silver just snickered, which only served to annoy Ethan further. "What's so funny?"

"It just amuses me..." Silver said as he took another pokeball from his belt. "It amuses me that a bleeding heart like you could have such a powerful pokemon." Silver aimed the pokeball at the ground only a few feet away from Crimson. A red beam fired out and materialized into a totodile which immediately folded its arms and tried to look intimidating. Ethan recognized the pokemon and its stance almost instantly.

"That's one of the pokemon from Elm's lab!" Ethan said. He growled and glared at Silver. "So you're the one that stole pokemon from Elm's lab! To think I'd run into you like this..."

"You've heard of me? Too bad you can't do anything about it now," Silver said. "Totodile, attack his cyndaquil with Water Gun." Totodile turned his head to look at his new trainer in confusion but a glare from Silver caused him to quickly spring into action. Totodile turned to Crimson, who was still reeling from the Volt Tackle, and spat a quick burst of water at him. Crimson recoiled when the water struck him and collapsed instantly.

"Now, why don't you make things easy on yourself and hand over that pokeball?" Silver asked, then extended a hand toward Ethan. "You're helpless now without your pokemon at your side."

"Crimson, return!" Ethan called out while staring back at Silver with a defiant expression. He recalled his fainted pokemon and quickly clipped his pokeball back to his belt.

"Tch..." Silver sneered. "If that's how you want to play, then so be it. My Totodile will just have to take your pokemon by force." Silver snapped his fingers and pointed at Ethan. Totodile looked between the two trainers, hesitant at first, then started to slowly move toward Ethan.

"So you'd really make a pokemon attack a human..." Ethan said quietly. He slowly backed away from the approaching Totodile while he tried to come up with a plan. Totodile could easily lunge at a moment's notice, though, and Ethan wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.

"That's right," Silver said to Ethan. "And I can't guarantee you'll be in any condition to walk away after either. So why don't you make it easier on yourself and just hand over the pokemon?"

"Not a chance!" Ethan shot back. "I'll never give up my pokemon!"

Silver growled. "Then so be it. Totodile, get that pokeball by any means necessary." Totodile moved forward and was about to pounce when suddenly...

"Bitey! Gorey! Surround it with Whirlpool!"

Two serpent-like pokemon suddenly shot forward and began to circle around the Totodile, building up a swirling column of water around it. The two pokemon that had created the wall of water continued to circle around Totodile, swimming around it now in the whirlpool. Trying to move past the water only resulted in the Totodile getting knocked back by Bitey as he passed by.

"Reinforcements..." Silver muttered under his breath, turning around in time to spot Crystal and Angela arriving on the back of Stan the Stantler. He moved closer to the whirlpool and turned his back to it. "Totodile, keep trying to get out and..." Silver whispered a command to Totodile, too quiet for anyone else to hear.

"We have you now, you thief!" Crystal yelled. The girls came to a stop a fair distance away and hopped off Stan's back. The two girls maintained a safe distance while Stan moved forward, ready to protect them in case of an attack.

"Now give back those pokemon you stole!"

"And stop hurting my totodile!" Angela added. Crystal gave her a look from the corner of her eye but said nothing.

"You want these pokemon back?" Silver asked with a smirk. He then drew his last pokeball from his belt. "Then you'll have to get through them first! Chikorita, go!" The pokeball Silver drew opened in his hand and fired a red beam that materialized into the chikorita that he had stolen. The chikorita looked around in confusion, realizing that it now had a trainer but not one that it recognized.

"Chikorita, attack that pokemon with Poison Powder," Silver commanded while pointing at Stan. Chikorita hesitated for a moment before releasing a purple burst of powder from his neck, spraying Stan with it. Stan winced, feeling the poison set in as the powder fell around him.

"I don't need to fight it, I just need to disable it," Crystal replied calmly. "Stan, I know that poison is painful but please endure it and use Hypnosis on Chikorita!" Stan grimaced and nodded, forcing himself into action. He took aim at Chikorita with his horns, which then seemed to be pulsating as they released hypnotic energy waves. Chikorita became entranced by the horns and was starting to become drowsy.

"Chikorita, resist and use-GRK!" Silver was suddenly smashed in the side of the face before he could call out an attack. The punch sent him staggering off to the side but he managed to stay on his feet. He rubbed the side of his face and then turned to glare at his attacker.

"Not so tough when you don't have a pokemon to hide behind!" Ethan said with a grin. "Now let's settle this man to man!" he called out, then lunged forward to punch Silver again. Silver managed to sidestep the punch and kicked his foot into Ethan's ankle, sending him falling flat on his face.

"Tougher than a weakling like you," Silver said flatly.

Meanwhile, Chikorita managed to resist the Hypnosis attack by Stan and decided to attack of his own accord. Twirling his head leaf he launched several sharp leaves at Stan. Stan grunted in pain as the leaves slashed across his face and staggered back while shaking his head.

"Chikorita, stop! We're not your enemies!" Crystal called out. This seemed to make the chikorita hesitate for a moment.

"-Wait... why AM I fighting...?-" Chikorita wondered. He turned to look back at Silver only for the boy to suddenly recall him.

"Useless pokemon..." he grumbled. While Silver was recalling Chikorita, though, Ethan was able to get back on his feet. He then grabbed Silver from behind, putting his arms under Silver's to restrain the older boy. "You!"

"You lowered your guard! Too bad!" Ethan said to him. "Now you've got no choice but to surrender!"

Silver grinned. "You sure about that?" he asked, then turned to the nearby whirlpool. "Totodile, unleash your rage now! Scratch! Strike down all who oppose you!"

"You can forget it! Totodile can't do a thing while my pokemon..." Angela began to say, but then her two pokemon were suddenly launched out of the whirlpool one after another. Both hit the ground next to her and were completely unconscious. "Bitey? Gorey!" she cried out in disbelief. The whirlpool then collapsed, leaving an enraged totodile standing in its place.

"Totodile's Rage technique," Silver explained with a grin. "You thought you had it contained, but all you've been doing is building Totodile's rage. Now he's so enraged that his attack power is off the charts!"

"No way!" Ethan said in disbelief. His grip loosened slightly out of shock and Silver quickly capitalized on this, slipping out of Ethan's grasp and then turning to slam a fist into his lower jaw in a painful uppercut. Ethan fell to the ground clutching his mouth.

"I'm no weak thief to just be casually tossed aside, you see," Silver said, kicking Ethan in the side for good measure. "I'm Silver. And I don't just plan to be the greatest trainer ever. I plan to beat down weak trainers everywhere!" Silver then turned to Crystal and Angela.

"And I'll start with you bunch. Totodile, continue the assault and attack her pokemon!" Totodile let out as menacing a roar as such a small pokemon could and lunged toward Stan. Stan tried to move back to avoid it and seemed to be successful as Totodile came a foot short of striking him, landing in front of the stantler instead. But Totodile quickly bounced up after landing and delivered a powerful headbutt to Stan's jaw. Stan's head snapped back and the pokemon quickly went down.

"STAN!" Crystal cried out in dismay.

"Distressed over one pokemon fainting... that's why you'll never be as good as I am," Silver said to them. Almost as soon as he finished talking he found himself going down. His legs had been swept out from underneath him, spinning him around as he fell to hit the ground face first. "AUGH!" he growled when he hit the ground.

"Not that much fun when it's you, is it?" Ethan said to him. Silver turned and spat in his direction and both boys scrambled to their feet. They simultaneously threw a punch at each other and their fist's connected, causing both of them to cry out and withdraw their hands.

"Gah... damn it, watch where you're punching!" Silver growled, holding his injured hand.

"Why don't YOU!" Ethan shot back while shaking his own. The two glared at each other and then lunged, throwing a punch with their other hands this time. Their fists met each other's jaws this time and both of them staggered back, spitting out blood. By now both boys were running off of adrenaline and just shook it off to glare daggers at each other.

Meanwhile, Crystal had been spurred on by Silver's harsh words as well but in a different way. Grimacing, she recalled Stan and returned his pokeball to her belt. She then took another pokeball in her hand.

"I'll stop that Totodile somehow! Yippy, I choose you!" she called out, releasing a blue, armless pokemon that seemed to have a permanent smile on its face. It let out a cry as it appeared that sounded like a yipping noise.

"Yippy, Mud Shot!" she called out. Yippy opened his mouth to attack, but was too slow as a tail quickly slammed into that mouth. Totodile's enraged tail attack knocked Yippy back and left his mouth hanging open. He was already unconscious from just one blow. Crystal quickly recalled him and returned his pokeball to her belt, only to take another one in each hand.

"Fine! Then I'll just use two pokemon!" she said. "Smoochya! Hooty! Go!" The pokeballs open and two pokemon emerge. The first is the babyish smoochum, Smoochya and the second a roundish bird pokemon that Crystal had named Hooty.

"This time we'll try disabling it!" Crystal said. "Smoochya, Sweet Kiss! Hooty, Hypnosis!" Smoochya moved closer to Totodile to try to plant a kiss only to get stabbed in the stomach by Totodile's claws, losing consciousness instantly. Hooty then tried dousing Totodile in hypnotic energy waves, her eyes seemingly spinning for a brief moment. A brief moment because Totodile was quickly upon it after felling Smoochya, snapping his jaws around Hooty and then tossing her aside. Hooty, too, went down almost instantly as Totodile's rage fueled its strength.

"Why couldn't that be my pokemon!" Angela whined.

"I can think of a few reasons..." Crystal grumbled as she recalled her pokemon. She then took her final pokeball in hand.

"Down to this, then... Okay, full offense this time! Mary, go!" she called out, releasing a wooly sheep pokemon from its pokeball. Mary let out a happy cry when she appeared, which got Totodile's attention. Totodile turned and narrowed its eyes at her, sending a shiver through Mary's body.

"Mary, quick! Thundershock!" Crystal called out. Totodile lunged, ready to take Mary out in one blow like it had done to the rest of Crystal's pokemon. This time, though, Crystal's pokemon was able to get off an attack. A blast of electricity fired out from the frightened mareep's wool coat, shooting totodile out of the air. After suffering a continuous pounding in the whirlpool before the electricity was simply too much for Totodile to handle. This time, he was the one to be knocked out instantly.

"Heh..." Ethan wiped his mouth on his sleeve and grinned. "Looks like you're the one without pokemon now," he said to Silver.

"Damn it..." Silver growled. He was now forced to take out Totodile's pokeball and recall him, then raised his hands in surrender. "Looks like I've been beaten then..."

"That's right!" Crystal said. "Now give back the pokemon you stole!"

"Fine..." Silver grumbled. He reached down and took two pokeballs from his belt, then tossed them to the ground. "Take them," he said. He watched closely as Crystal and Ethan each went for one of the pokeballs. A grin formed on his face and he quickly took off running north.

"HEY! He's getting away!" Angela yelled.

"Let him go," Crystal said, holding up one of the pokeballs. "We've got the pokemon back at least," she said, then aimed the pokeball at the ground and released the pokemon contained within. Chikorita, still unconscious, appeared lying on his side. Crystal let out a sigh and reached down to pick him up. "Poor thing..."

"We've got one of the pokemon," Ethan informed her.

"Huh?" Crystal looked at Ethan, who was looking down at a pokemon on the ground. She followed his gaze and looked down. The pokemon lying there was not a totodile, like Crystal thought it would be.

It was a pichu.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: Still procrastinating on these things...<p>

Well, no gym battle this week, but we still got a battle. Next week, though, the action will finally be in Violet City and I'm hoping to pick up the pace from there. Possibly with a back to back gym chapter, sort of. Though what gym battle might be in the fourth chapter would likely surprise people if I go that route. Why? Because it won't be Bugsy.

I think this is the first time I had a non-Pokemon fight in one of my stories...


	3. Chapter 3: Dreams Take Flight

**Chapter 3**

**Dreams Take Flight**

"This place looks old..." Angela said, wrinkling her nose at the scene set out before her. Angela and Crystal stood at the edge of another city now. Many of the buildings in the city before them had traditional-looking, wooden homes with tile rooves. The city had a more oriental feel to it than anywhere Angela had ever been.

"That's because Violet City is more heavily rooted in tradition. Look," Crystal pointed toward a tower in the distance. "That place over there is known as Sprout Tower. In a way, it serves as a monastery of sorts. All the monks there are trainers, too. Most of them train bellsprout or hoothoot."

"Lame..." Angela muttered. "Anyway, I can't believe we made it all the way here but there was no sign of that Silver guy..."

"Yeah..." Crystal said wistfully. She recalled what had happened not even an hour earlier...

* * *

><p>Outside the Violet City Pokecenter...<p>

"I can't believe that thi-ow!" Ethan cringed and clutched his jaw, ice pack held tightly in his hand.

"I'm surprised you can speak at all after that scuffle with Silver," Crystal said, blinking in disbelief. "You were hit in the mouth a lot..."

"Maybe he's made of iron?" Angela suggested casually, leaning back against the pokecenter and resting her hands behind her head.

"What she said!" Ethan boasted proudly. He raised one hand into the air while holding his ice pack with the other. "It takes more than a few punches for me to even-OW!" Ethan clutched his jaw again as the pain became too much for him to keep talking.

"Anyway, what now?" Crystal asked, looking down at the pokeball in her hand. "We have one of the stolen pokemon back, but the other one..."

"Just a pokemon he didn't want anymore..." Ethan muttered quietly, then took a pokeball from his belt and looked at it in his hand. "I thought his pichu did pretty well... guess he disagreed..."

Crystal nodded and gripped her pokeball tightly. "He definitely won't treat that totodile with love or kindness. After all the work my mother and I went through raising these pokemon, I won't let someone like him take them away!"

"Right... you go after him then," Ethan said to her, forcing his mouth into a grin. "I'll explain things to the professor... and then give my mouth a rest."

"But what about the chikorita? Shouldn't you take him back?" Crystal asked, holding the pokeball out to Ethan. Ethan shook his head and pushed it back toward her.

"You... take that one..." he said, then held up the pokeball containing Silver's Pichu. "And I'll take this one. I know the professor will understand."

Crystal returned the pokeball to her belt and nodded. "If you say so. Then, I guess we'll be off..."

Ethan nodded. "Right."

"About time!" Angela said impatiently as she pushed off from the wall. "Let's go get my totodile back from that guy already!"

"Angela... about that totodile..."

* * *

><p><em>I'll find him,<em> Crystal thought determinedly. _And when I do, I'll definitely make him return that totodile._ She then looked at Angela and mentally added, _to the professor._

"So, what are we going to do in this city anyway?" Angela asked Crystal.

"I say we split up," Crystal replied. "We'll stop by the pokemon center, as usual, but then we each check different places known to be frequented by trainers. He might go after other trainers' pokemon or have other motives..."

"Like raising his pokemon?" Angela suggested. Crystal looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Angela shrugged. "What? Beating up other people's pokemon is a good way to make your own pokemon stronger..."

"True..." Crystal quietly admitted, then nodded. "Okay then, you check out Sprout Tower and I'll check the local gym."

"You want me to go check the tower full of monks wielding grass-type pokemon?" Angela asked her.

Crystal blinked. "Well... it's not like you have to battle them or anything..."

"I'm battling them."

Crystal stared blankly for a moment. She then let out a sigh. _I'm not even going to ask..._

"I'm going to the tower now," Angela said, then started to run off.

"H-hey! Wait!" Crystal called out after her. Angela stopped and turned to face her with a questioning look on her face. "What about going to the pokemon center?"

"Well, my pokemon haven't even been out of their pokeballs since we left Cherrygrove, right?" Angela pointed out. "Only your pokemon have been active, and even then only because we've been riding your stantler. So I don't need to go there."

Crystal frowned and folded her arms. "You know, for a so-called bodyguard, you're pretty quick to head off on your own. And you haven't been doing a very good job at being a bodyguard either. I mean, you failed to stop Silver twice! That's not a very good track record!"

"So I'll make up for it by finding him and beating him up! Later!" Angela replied cheerfully, then ran off again. Crystal watched her run and then let out a sigh.

"I'm glad I don't really need a bodyguard..." she said quietly, then started off toward the pokemon center.

* * *

><p>"Welcome to Sprout Tower," a bald monk clad in black robes said, greeting a small group of tourists with a bow. He then turned and gestured to a flexible pillar behind him that was slowly moving from side to side. "This is the central pillar that holds this tower together. It is said that a 100ft tall bellsprout was used to create the pillar."<p>

A young girl's hand rose from within the tourist group.

"Yes, you there! Is there something you would like to ask?" the monk asked the raised hand. The tourists moved aside so he could speak to the young girl directly, the girl being none other than Angela.

"Doesn't that mean a giant and thus probably rare bellsprout was killed to make this tower?" Angela asked. The group of tourists gasped.

"O-of course not!" the monk stammered. "The tower was already here but, uh, you see... a great earthquake threatened the tower!" The monk nodded sagely. "Yes, the tower was threatened but the mighty and wise giant bellsprout gave its life so that the tower may stand. Thus, no matter how hard we battle, this tower will stand strong!"

"'Kay!" Angela replied, then took a pair of pokeballs from her belt. "Bitey! Gorey! Come on out!" she called out, releasing the two deep sea pokemon from their pokeballs. The tourists gave Angela a wide berth now that the two pokemon were lying out in front of her.

"W-wait! What are you..."

"Bitey! Gorey! Attack that pillar with Water Pulse!" The two water pokemon responded affirmatively and then each launched a circular, pulsating blast of water at the pillar. The pillar shook as the water struck it. Splinters were flung away as the water shredded the wood, but only enough damage was inflicted to leave two small gashes in the thick, sturdy piece of wood.

"Wow! You were right! That thing IS pretty strong!" Angela said to the now panic-stricken monk. "Okay, everyone! Let's go climb the tower now and beat everyone up!" she then said energetically. She recalled her pokemon and headed for the nearest ladder.

"Why... why would you... if that pillar was destroyed..." the monk muttered shakily. Angela ignored him and recalled her pokemon so she could climb up the ladder to the second floor.

The second floor of the tower, much like the first, was a large, square room with the central pillar rising up through the middle. Much of the room could be seen as soon as one arrived at the top of the ladder, save for what the pillar obscured. A trio of monks were kneeling near that pillar and looked as if they had been tending to their injured bellsprouts but were suddenly distracted by the pillar itself. The reason was obvious, of course.

"Ehhh! Are everyone's pokemon already beat up!" Angela said in dismay when she saw the monks tending to their pokemon.

"Our apologies, young lady..." One of the monks replied. "A red-haired young boy just came through here recently and beat all our pokemon," he explained, then went back to tending to his bellsprout with the remainder of his potion.

"If you are looking for a battle, then the elder should still be available," a second monk explained with a rather annoyed expression. "He definitely would not lose to such a callous, ruthless trainer..."

"...Okay! New target then!" Angela said cheerfully, then immediately ran for the ladder to the next level. The three monks shrugged and went back to healing their pokemon without a second thought.

* * *

><p>While Angela seemed to be hot on Silver's trail, Crystal was doing her own investigation. After a brief stop by the Violet City Pokecenter, Crystal went to the local gym. Unlike the rest of the buildings in Violet City, the gym was fairly modern looking due to being constructed by the league rather than the locals. This made the building stand out in the rather old-fashioned looking city.<p>

_Come to think of it, this will be my first time in a gym,_ Crystal thought to herself as she looked up at the building before her. The word 'Gym' was written over the door in rather large letters. _This time of day, the gym leader should be in, right?_ she thought. She then opened the gym's double doors and stepped inside.

"I need to speak to the gym leader!" she called out as soon as she was inside. The inside of the gym was styled much like a dojo but with a pokemon battlefield marked out in the center.

"Really?" a young man on the other side of the gym replied. He was dressed in a kimono and carried a wooden sword at his side. "Usually it's something more along the lines of 'I'm here to battle the gym leader.'," he said to her.

"W-well I just have to ask him something, actually..." Crystal replied sheepishly to the young man. "Umm... are you the gym leader by any chance?"

The young man nodded. "I'm Falkner, the gym leader of Violet City."

"Oh, well, I was wondering if you battled a certain trainer recently..." Crystal began to say. "Red haired, kind of a jerk..."

"Silver..." Falkner growled. "That trainer came into my gym and forced me to battle him, ordering his pokemon to attack me and forcing me to defend myself with my own, and then forcing me to hand over a badge after my pokemon had been defeated... had I been able to defeat him, I would have definitely turned him in..."

"Yeah... that sounds like him..." Crystal said quietly.

"For someone so callous toward his pokemon, his strength was surprising..." Falkner said. He then raised his wooden sword and pointed it toward Crystal. "What business do YOU have with such a trainer?"

"He stole a pokemon from Professor Elm's lab. A pokemon my mother and I helped raise." Crystal clenched a fist tightly. "So... I need to find a way to beat him and get that pokemon back..."

"A noble cause, but are your pokemon up to the challenge?" Falkner asked her. He drew his sword back and rested it against his shoulder. "Though some of my pokemon have yet to recover, I have two pokemon I can battle you with. As the gym leader of Violet City, allow me to test your abilities in combat."

"Test my abilities?" Crystal thought. She then remembered what Silver had said to her earlier.

_"Distressed over one pokemon fainting... that's why you'll never be as good as I am."_

_ I don't want to make my pokemon fight... but... I've got to be stronger than Silver..._

After giving it some thought, Crystal nodded. "Okay! As a beginner pokemon trainer I, Crystal, accept your challenge!" she called out, pointing a finger at Falkner.

"Something feels a bit off here..." Falkner muttered. Shrugging it off, he reached into his pocket and produced a pair of pokeballs. "We will use two pokemon each. Make your choice."

"Right..." Crystal considered her options for a moment, briefly considering her chikorita's pokeball. _I haven't even explained what's going on to chikorita yet come to think about it, so using him would probably be a bad idea... hmm..._

Eventually, she took two pokeballs from her belt. "I'll use these two, then," she said, then held one pokeball in each hand and held it out toward the battlefield. "Mary, I choose you!" she called out. The pokeball opened and released Crystal's wooly electric pokemon onto the battlefield.

"Then let's begin! Pidgey, I choose you!" Falkner called out as he released his own pokemon. A small bird pokemon appeared resting on the battlefield. It quickly began flapping its wings and took off, hovering low over the field now.

"Okay! Mary, let's start with Thundershock!" Mary nodded quickly and let out a cry as she released the electricity stored within her wool coat. The electricity seemed to come from every party of her body and fired toward Pidgey in several small bolts. Pidgey shrieked in pain when the bolts of electricity struck her and instantly collapsed.

Crystal blinked in disbelief. "It... it went down that easily?" she said.

"Admittedly, Pidgey is not one of my stronger pokemon..." Falkner said quietly as he recalled his pokemon. He then cast a stern look toward Crystal. "Even so, it's no pushover. To defeat it in one blow... your pokemon must be quite strong as well."

_Maybe he's just not that good a gym leader?_ Crystal thought to herself.

"But that was merely a test," Falkner said to her as he took another pokeball in his hand. "The real battle starts now! Witness the true majesty of bird pokemon! Pidgeotto!" Falkner then released his second and final pokemon, a tan-feathered bird pokemon similar to Pidgey but larger and with a crest of feathers on its head. The pokemon let out a loud cry which, to Crystal, sounded like the roar of a mighty beast.

_ISN'T THIS A BIT EARLY FOR AN EVOLVED POKEMON!_ she thought in a panic.

"Pidgeotto, Tackle attack!" Falkner called out. Pidgeotto flapped its wings and took off at high speed, flying low across the gym and plowing into Mary. Mary let out a cry as she was flung back and landed hard on her side. Luckily, her wool cushioned some of the impact, but she was still in quite a bit of pain.

Crystal winced. "That looked painful, but we can't back down! Mary, fire back with Thundershock!" Mary gathered her strength and rolled back onto her feet. She then released a blast of electricity from her wool, striking Pidgeotto with the blast at short range. Pidgeotto cried out in pain and dropped to the floor, but managed to land on its feet.

"Pidgeotto, use Roost." Falkner calmly ordered his pokemon. Pidgeotto folded its wings and sat down on the floor. His body glowed briefly and he suddenly felt refreshed.

"Roost is a technique used by flying-type pokemon to restore their strength," Falkner explained to Crystal. "Not only that, but they're effectively no longer flying-type pokemon for as long as they remain roosted."

"Guess another electric attack won't be as effective then," Crystal reasoned. "Mary, let's go with a status ailment instead, then! Thunder Wave!" Mary smiled and nodded happily, then released a pulse of static electricity from her wool. The static pulse struck Pidgeotto while he was resting and paralyzed his muscles, causing the bird pokemon to cringe.

"Hmph... Pidgeotto, Tackle." Pidgeotto quickly got up and charged across the gym floor. In his paralyzed state flying was more difficult, but he could still move fairly fast while running. He plowed straight into Mary, knocking her over. This time, she wouldn't be getting back up.

"Mary... guess that's it for her then..." Crystal said remorsefully as she recalled her pokemon. She clipped Mary's pokeball to her belt and then held out her remaining pokeball. "Hooty, I choose you now!" she called out, releasing the brown feathered hoothoot from its pokeball. Hooty stood almost perfectly still when he appeared, looking somewhat lazy.

"Let's keep our strategy going! Hooty, Hypnosis!" Hooty focused its gaze on Pidgeotto and started dousing it in hypnotic energy waves. Pidgeotto's eyelids began to grow heavy and he soon dropped to the floor, fast asleep.

"Hmm... if not for that paralysis, Pidgeotto could have atacked Hooty and stopped it from using that technique..." Falkner mused quietly.

"Now we're free to attack all we want! Hooty, Tackle and then Peck!" Crystal called out to her pokemon.

"-I am not meant to be a melee combatant, young lady.-" Hooty muttered, though she followed through on Crystal's orders anyway. Flapping her tiny wings, Hooty flew across the gym and threw herself into the sleeping Pidgeotto, knocking the pokemon onto its back. Hooty then jumped onto Pidgeotto and pecked the pokemon in the stomach before flying up into the air.

"Finish with another Tackle attack!" Hooty quickly dove down, performing a divebomb tackle into Pidgeotto's chest. Pidgeotto suddenly woke up and gasped sharply as Hooty's tackle knocked the wind out of it, then soon lost consciousness again.

"My father's cherished bird pokemon..." Falkner said in dismay as he recalled his Pidgeotto. He held his pokemon's pokeball in his hand for a moment and let out a sigh, then turned to face Crystal. Crystal was congratulating her pokemon on its win and recalling it as well. Falkner quietly waited until she was finished before speaking to her.

"Your pokemon still have a long way to go, but you seem to understand the importance of status ailments just fine," Falkner said to Crystal. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a disc with a badge stuck to it and threw it across the gym to Crystal. Crystal managed to catch it and looked at the disc in confusion.

"A badge and TM?"

"You beat me fair and square, so you've earned those," Falkner said to her. "But you're still no match for Silver. His pokemon are ruthless and tough."

_Sounds like he's definitely gotten more pokemon since running off with totodile at any rate,_ Crystal thought. She was quite sure Silver only had totodile with him when she last saw him, though at the time she had assumed it was pichu. _He might try another stunt like that, come to think about it. I wonder if there's any way to catch another trainer's pokemon..._

"If you want to get tougher, I suggest you continue challenging other gym leaders," Falkner continued. "The closest cities with gyms are Azalea in the south, Goldenrod in the east, and Ecruteak to the north. I wouldn't advise challenging Goldenrod's gym just yet, though..."

"Huh?" Crystal blinked. "Why not?"

"That one... she's known for making beginning trainers cry."

* * *

><p>"Ah, geez!" Angela grumbled as she reached the top of the final ladder. "I'm already at the top and not a single battle! There better be something interesting up... huh?" Angela stood up when she pulled herself and looked around the room.<p>

The top floor stood out from every other level of the tower. The central support pillar was firmly attached to the roof here. The room was also decorated more like a temple, with cushions arranged in two rows along the side for the resident monks to rest upon. At the far end of the room was an altar where the elder would be seated.

But none of that was what caught Angela's attention. What caught Angela's attention were the sounds of a pokemon battle up ahead.

_Have I finally caught up with him!_ she wondered as she charged forward, hurriedly pushing past the crowd of monks. Several monks were knocked over in Angela's reckless charge. When she reached the front of the pack, she could finally see the battle in question.

"Totodile, finish this with a Bite attack," Silver calmly ordered his pokemon. Totodile lunged toward the elder's hoothoot and snapped its jaws tightly around the bird pokemon's rounded body. The hoothoot cried out sharply and then fell silent. With the battle over, the elder and Silver withdrew their pokemon.

"You have indeed won..." the elder said to Silver. "However, your style of battle is too rough. Pokemon are not tools of war."

"HEY! YOU!" Angela yelled, clenching a fist. Silver turned around and smirked when he saw her.

"You're surprisingly persistent," Silver said to her, then glanced back at the elder. "He calls himself the elder but, really, he's weak. Hmph. Stands to reason. I wouldn't lose to anyone who babbles on about being nice to pokemon."

"Forget about him!" Angela jabbed a finger in Silver's direction. "Your battle is with me now!"

Silver snickered. "Did you really think I didn't anticipate one of you might arrive while I was in the tower?" he asked her. He then pulled out a pair of leather gloves from his pocket and slipped them on. "I already prepared an escape route." He then grinned and took a pokeball in his hands. "Heads up."

"Huh?" Angela was confused for a moment but then Silver threw the pokeball at her, aiming for her head. Angela ducked it but then Silver ran past while she was distracted.

"HEY!" Angela called out, turning around as he ran past. He completely ignored the pokeball he threw at her and went straight for the pillar, which Angela now noticed had a rope dangling down alongside it. The top end of the rope was tied to the rafters. Silver jumped and grabbed the rope, sliding down along next to the pillar. Angela walked over to the pillar and considered doing the same, but cringed when she realized she'd just get rope burn.

"Grr... he got away again..." she muttered, then eyed the pokeball he left behind. "Maybe...?"

Angela ran over to the pokeball and picked it up, then pressed the button. To her surprise, a pokemon did indeed come out of the pokeball. To her dismay, it was a fainted hoothoot.

"That hoothoot... he used it in battle against mine just now, but it lost quite easily..." the elder said, narrowing his eyes at the pokemon. "He's using this hoothoot as a tool to make his escape simply because it was weaker than my own. How disgraceful..."

"Blah, blah, blah! I don't care how he treats his pokemon!" Angela snapped at the elder. "The only pokemon I care about are water-type pokemon! If you care so much then why don't you keep that stupid hoothoot!" she yelled at him, then ran for the ladder in a vain attempt to try to catch up to Silver.

"Hmph... youth these days..." the elder grumbled. "It's fine to value certain pokemon over others, but all pokemon deserve to be treated with respect and kindness." He then let out a sigh.

"The bond between human and pokemon is what makes us grow stronger together. Has the next generation of trainers forgotten this valuable lesson...?"

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: Gym battle was pretty short, but Falkner only has two pokemon when you battle him in-game and only one of them is even worth mentioning. I think he has to be the most boring gym leader in the entire series. He's the first gym leader in the Johto region and yet no one at GameFreak saw fit to give him Johto pokemon. On top of that, both of the pokemon he has are of the same evolution family.<p>

Remember Brock? Remember what pokemon he had? He had a goddamn ONIX when you first faced him! Roxanne had a Nosepass! Roark had a Cranidos! Why not give Falkner a HootHoot instead of that Pidgey? Or how about a Farfetch'd? Not only would that fit Falkner's theme but a Farfetch'd would actually be a decent opponent this early in the game! HootHoot and Farfetch'd, now THAT would have made for a much more interesting first gym battle for G/S/C. Falkner is so lame though that back then his signature move was Mudslap...

Blah. Wish I thought about this before I wrote this chapter actually...

On an unrelated note, I see changed its layout again. I hate it. Menus should be at the top of the screen, damn it! Also, it's ugly looking. Everything is too white now.


	4. Chapter 4: The Tree Hates Water?

**Chapter 4**

**The Tree Hates Water?**

"I'm sorry I didn't explain this before, but we'll be travelling together from now on, Chikorita," Crystal said to the grass pokemon, crouching down so she could be closer to her level. The chikorita tilted his head to the side and peered at Crystal curiously.

"That trainer you were with before? He actually stole you and totodile from Professor Elm," Crystal explained to him. "Ethan and I managed to beat him and got you back, but he tricked us and gave us a different pokemon instead of totodile."

"-Obviously...-" The chikorita said disinterestedly.

"But, we're going after Silver now. Next time we see him, we'll definitely get totodile back for sure!" Crystal clenched her fist tightly and held it out toward the chikorita. "You with me!"

"-I don't really care about that totodile, but...-" Chikorita shrugged and tapped his right foreleg against Crystal's fist. "-I still kinda want to get back at this Silver guy...-"

Crystal grinned and nodded. "Great! Then, from now on, you'll be known as Rito!"

Rito blinked and thought over Crystal's nickname, then shrugged. "-Fine by me... HOWEVER!-" Rito pointed his foreleg at her. "-I must be bathed at least four times a day or else my skin will lose its healthy shine!-"

_I have no idea what he just said, but I bet it had something to do with grooming,_ Crystal thought to herself.

"Umm... so where are we going now?" Angela asked Crystal, interrupting her moment with Rito. "Though, I guess it's kinda late to go anywhere..."

It was some time after their respective investigations that Angela and Crystal met up again outside the pokemon center. Crystal decided to look around the city more after leaving the gym and Angela, too, tried to find Silver again after failing to thwart his escape from Sprout Tower. Neither girl managed to encounter the boy.

"Well even though Silver got away from us again," Crystal began to say as she cast an accusing glare toward Angela. "We DID get some useful information. We know he's challenging gym leaders, and he just left Violet City."

"Where do you think he'll go next then?" Angela asked, ignoring the glare.

"The logical route is to go to Azalea town, and then Goldenrod. That way there's no backtracking," Crystal explained to her, then raised her finger as if gesturing for silence. "BUT! If we follow the same route as him, we'll just be behind him again. So where we'll go is Goldenrod, and THEN Azalea. We might even catch him as he's leaving Azalea!"

"So we're going to Goldenrod tomorrow then?" Angela asked.

"No way!" Crystal shot back clenching her fists. "That'd put us behind again! Also, Goldenrod has much better places for us to spend the night!"

Angela narrowed her eyes at her. "This is more about the hotels, isn't it?" she asked. Crystal lowered her head and nodded. Angela let out a 'hmph' and folded her arms. "You know, REAL trainers camp out on routes and stuff! In fact, even before I was officially a trainer I was camping out in an abandoned hideout and protecting it from the criminals that wanted to take it back!"

"Uh huh," Crystal said disbelievingly. "And yet one criminal evades you now?"

Angela growled and stamped her foot against the ground. "I'm out of my element here! Completely out of my element! Get me near the water and I'll totally mop the floor with this guy! I'll beat him up and let my pokemon feast on his-"

"Okay, that's enough, I believe you," Crystal said to her, holding up her hands defensively. She definitely didn't need to hear the rest of what Angela had to say. "Anyway, we should leave now and maybe book a hotel in Goldenrod to make sure we have a place to stay when we get there."

Angela shrugged and folded her hands behind her head. "Do what you want then."

"Alright, I guess I'll make the arrangements then," Crystal said. She then headed for the nearby pokemon center to make the call. _Though, the real question is... one room or two?_ she thought, pausing for a moment to glance back at Angela. _I'm not sure which would be worse, sharing a room with her or letting her out of my sight!_

* * *

><p>After using one of the phones in the pokemon center to make hotel arrangements, Crystal and Angela headed west. Leaving the city from the west lead the two onto Route 36, a fairly short, heavily forested route that connected Violet City to the National Park. The route was also connected to two branching routes, Route 37 and Route 35, which would lead to Ecruteak and Goldenrod respectively.<p>

For today, they would be continuing west, in the direction of the National Park and Goldenrod. They didn't get far, however, before running into an unusual roadblock within the trees.

"That tree looks weird," Angela pointed out. The tree in question looked like it was made of rock, had solid green spheres for hands, and was rather small compared to the surrounding trees.

"Thank you, Captain Obvious," Crystal replied, rolling her eyes. "It's obviously not a real tree. Ever hear of a pokemon called sudowoodo?"

"No, but it already sounds like a fake tree..."

Crystal nodded. "Right. The name pretty much means 'psuedo wood' or 'fake wood', meaning its a fake tree. It's really a pokemon, one known for tricking trainers. These days most people know better."

"So basically it's a pokemon blocking our path." Angela shrugged and took a pair of pokeballs from her belt. Holding one pokeball in each hand, she released Bitey and Gorey from their pokeballs.

"Wait a second! We can easily squeeze past it!" Crystal protested.

"Too bad! This is more fun!" Angela shot back. "Bitey! Gorey! Surround it in a Whirlpool!"

Bitey and Gorey shot forward, water trailing behind them as they moved into the air. The water began to swirl around the fake tree pokemon once Angela's pokemon were beside it, sweeping her pokemon into it while trapping the sudowoodo within. Angela's pokemon circled around it, moving with the flow of the whirlpool and watching for any sign of movement. Of which, there was none.

Crystal blinked and slowly turned her head to face Angela. "Angela... you know that isn't going to do much when the target is already stationary, right?"

Angela was silent for a moment, then quickly turned to Crystal and folded her arms. "Of course I knew that! I'm just so used to opening with that attack by now that it was the first thing that came to mind, okay!"

_Can't disagree with that,_ Crystal thought, then raised an eyebrow. _Come to think of it, while I'm hesitant to give her any credit as a bodyguard, restraining the enemy does seem like something a real bodyguard would do._

"Okay! Let's attack for real then! Bitey, Bite!" Bitey quickly launched himself from the swirling water at the seemingly helpless prey in the center. Bitey's large jaws snapped shut around the tree pokemon's arms, but only Bitey showed any response. His eyes widened as if he was surprised by what he had bitten and he immediately let go.

"I can't tell what happened... did that attack do anything?" Angela wondered aloud. Bitey's attempt to attack the wild Sudowoodo was hidden completely behind a veil of water. "I don't think we need that whirlpool anymore... Gorey, stop the whirlpool!" Gorey complied, jumping to the ground and letting the whirlpool collapse. Angela could now see what kind of an effect Bitey's attack had on the sudowoodo. Which was none.

"Pretty tough for a grass pokemon..." Angela muttered, folding her arms in frustration.

"Is it really a grass-type pokemon, though?" Crystal wondered aloud.

"Maybe I could help you two with that!" A boy's voice called out. Angela and Crystal turned around to find Ethan standing behind them, sunglasses covering his eyes and a sly grin on his face. His pokemon, the cyndaquil Crimson, was standing next to him and mimicking his pose.

"Ethan? What are you doing here?" Crystal asked in disbelief.

"Just arrived in Violet City and heard you two were still nearby," Ethan said, then moved up in between the two girls. "A grass-type pokemon blocking your way, huh? Looks like a job for me and Crimson!"

"Fine, do whatever!" Angela yelled. She motioned for Bitey and Gorey to move out of the way. The two of them quickly rejoined Angela as she and Crystal moved aside to give Ethan and Crimson a wide berth.

"Okay, Crimson!" Ethan pointed dramatically toward the fake tree pokemon and called out, "Attack that target with Ember! Fire, fire, FIRE!"

Flames erupted from Crimon's back as he moved forward, putting himself between Ethan and the tree. With a small fire now flickering on his back, Crimon opened his mouth and started spitting fireballs. Several small fireballs struck the tree, but with no effect. The same couldn't be said for the two fireballs that missed and struck a real tree instead, which had the effect of setting the trees on fire.

Ethan grinned sheepishly. "Ah, well, guess we burned the wrong trees?" he said.

"You could have burned the forest down! With us in it!" Angela said, venting her frustration over being unable to harm the sudowoodo on Ethan. "Bitey, Gorey, put out those fires with Water Pulse!" Bitey and Gorey each took aim at one of the two trees struck by Crimson's Ember attack and launched a pulsating blast of water at them, blasting away a chunk of bark while putting the fire out.

A few drops of water from Angela's firefighting also splashed back and hit the tree pokemon. The pokemon actually wiggled around a bit when the drops of water hit it, something which Crystal picked up on.

_The sudowoodo moved just now when the water hit it, but that couldn't possibly be because it's a grass-type, right?_ Crystal thought, then shook her head. _No, definitely not a grass-type. If it was, it definitely would have reacted to Crimson's attack. So that pokemon must be weak to water instead, but resists fire..._

Crystal took this new information into consideration and came up with an answer fairly quickly. "Of course! That pokemon isn't a grass-type, it's a rock-type!" she said. Angela and Ethan looked at her in confusion.

"Eh? Rock type?" Ethan asked, raising an eyebrow. He then glanced back at the sudowoodo. "Hmm, yeah, it does look pretty solid..."

"So you mean I had the right idea all along!" Angela said in annoyance. She turned to the sudowoodo and stomped her foot hard. "BITEY! GOREY! We're attacking this stupid thing now! Water Pulse!"

Bitey and Gorey quickly took aim, both pokemon eager to continue their attack. Both pokemon launched a pulsating ring of water from their mouths, hitting the sudowoodo and finally managing to get a reaction out of the pokemon. The tree pokemon cried out in shock and suddenly sprang up. It tried to shake the water off and then turned to glare at Angela and her pokemon.

"I'm not out of this fight yet!" Ethan said as he took his only other pokeball from his belt. "I couldn't call myself the Gold Trainer if I backed down that easily! Sparx, get out there and hit that tree with all the electricity you've got!"

Ethan held out the pokeball and pressed the button, causing it to split and release a read beam. The beam fired toward the ground and materialized into the darker-colored pichu that he had obtained from Silver. The pichu had a big grin on its face and hopped up into the air when he appeared, clearly much happier now that he was with Ethan. While in midair it fired a jolt of electricity at the sudowoodo, wincing at the backlash from his own attack. The electricity arced through the air and struck the sudowoodo, causing it to cringe slightly as the electricity coursed through it.

"Then I guess we'll help too!" Crystal said as she grabbed a pokeball. "Rito, go!" she called out, releasing Rito the chikorita from his pokeball. He immediately reached up and brushed his head leaf back when he appeared and posed haughtily.

"Rito, attack with Razor Leaf!" Rito shrugged in response but complied with the command. He swung his headleaf around, launching a barrage of sharp leaves at the wild sudowoodo. The sudowoodo winced as the sharp leaves slashed across its body, but it proved to be surprisingly hardy. After enduring so much punishment, it was still standing.

Having endured everyone's attacks, the sudowoodo decided it was finally time to retalliate. The way it did so would prove to be a shock. The sudowoodo spun around, launching a barrage of sharp leaves aimed at Angela's pokemon. Bitey and Gorey cried out in pain as the sharp leaves slashed across their thin bodies.

"Razor Leaf! I thought it wasn't a grass type!" Angela cried out.

"It must have copied Rito's technique!" Crystal realized.

"Heh... likes to copy techniques, huh?" Ethan grinned. "Alright, pal, let's see you copy this one then!" Ethan then raised his hand and pointed dramatically at the sudowoodo. "Sparx, full power assault! Volt Tackle!"

Sparx grinned and clenched his paws into tiny fists. Electricity began to pour out from his cheeks and surrounded his body, causing Sparx some pain from the jolt. He endured that pain and took off charging toward the wild sudowoodo.

Accepting the challenge, the sudowoodo mimicked Sparx. Electricity surrounded the tree pokemon and it started running toward Sparx. The two pokemon charged recklessly toward each other, electricity trailing behind them, until they finally collided in a brilliant flash of light and sparks. They were thrown away from the impact. Badly injured, they were both laying still where they landed for a moment before the two of them started to simultaneously get back on their feet.

"Looks like that did it!" Ethan turned and quickly pulled off his backpack, setting it down on the ground and then opening it to take out an empty pokeball. He then turned and threw the pokeball as hard as he could.

"Sudowoodo, you're mine now!" he called out as he threw the pokeball. The pokeball struck the sudowoodo in the face, then opened and pulled the pokemon inside. The pokeball dropped to the ground and shook a few times, but then shattered as the sudowoodo made its escape.

"Ethan! A pokemon is easier to catch if it's been inflicted with a status ailment!" Crystal said to him, then took a pokeball from her belt. "Stan, I choose you!" she called out, releasing Stan the stantler from his pokeball. "Stan, attack that pokemon with Hypnosis!" Stan lowered his horns to aim at the sudowoodo and began emitting hypnotic energy waves. Within seconds the sudowoodo collapsed, fast asleep.

Ethan grinned. "Good call, Crystal!" he said, then reached into his backpack to pull out another empty pokeball. "Good thing I got a bunch of these from Elm," he said to himself, then turned and threw the pokeball at the sleeping sudowoodo. The ball opened up when it struck the pokemon and pulled it inside. The pokeball shook a few times and then finally clicked and locked shut.

"ALRIGHT! We caught a sudowoodo!" Ethan cheered, pumping his fist into the air. Crimson and Sparx jumped up and cheered happily with him

"Hmph. Well good for you," Angela said dismissively.

Ethan was grinning as he walked over to the pokeball and picked it up. "Man, with Sparx and now this sudowoodo on my team, I'm feeling pretty good about battling Falkner!"

"Actually, he's pretty easy..." Crystal said, then reached into her pocket and pulled out her trainer id so she could show her badge to Ethan. "See? I managed to get a badge from him, though I didn't actually come to Violet City with any intention to battle him..."

Ethan stared at the badge in disbelief for a few seconds, then grinned. "So you've decided to take on the gym leaders too? I never would have figured you to be the battle type! We'll need to have a match one of these days!"

Crystal blushed slightly. "S-sure!" she replied. Angela rolled her eyes.

"We're finished here, right? So let's just go already!" she said impatiently, then pointed at Stan. "You have your mount out of its pokeball so let's just get on it and get going already!"

Stan was the one to respond to Angela's comment first, turning its horns on Angela and emitting hypnotic energy waves from them. Drowsiness set in pretty quickly, before Angela could even realize what was going on. Soon, she dropped to the ground and was fast asleep. When Angela's two pokemon looked like they were about to attack in retalliation, Stan repeated the process to put both of them to sleep.

Well I guess that'll keep her quiet for a while at least, Crystal thought.

"So where are you two headed that has blondie here so worked up?" Ethan asked, jabbing his thumb in Angela's direction.

"We're going to Goldenrod. That's why we were going through here," Crystal said to Ethan. "I heard the gym leader there is pretty tough so I want to challenge her next. And I was able to book a hotel for the night, too!"

"Eh? A hotel?" Ethan raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't sound very trainer like."

Angela said the same thing, Crystal thought. Ethan saying it carried much more weight to her, though, so she only nodded in agreement.

"Anyway, I guess you're in a hurry then since it's going to be dark soon. I need to find somewhere to settle down for the night too, and I doubt the gym is open this late. So I guess I'll see you around Crystal!"

"Yeah, see you around, Ethan," Crystal replied. Ethan and his two pokemon then turned and left. Crimson stopped for a moment, though, and quickly turned around to spit a small fireball at Rito. The fireball narrowly missed him but Rito cried out in shock anyway and ran to hide behind Crystal. Crimson snickered to himself and then ran off with his trainer.

Crystal giggled quietly, then reached down to pat the chikorita on the head. "Guess some things never change, huh Rito?" she said to him. "But I'm glad to see Ethan and that pichu are getting along at least." She then straightened up, looked toward the sleeping Angela and smirked.

"I know I should wake her up but she's so much more... _peaceful_ like this." She turned to Stan and asked, "Stan, would you mind carrying her around so we don't have to wake her up?" Stan had to consider this for a moment but in the end gave Crystal an affirmative nod. Crystal then set about recalling every other pokemon but Stan, including Angela's two.

After Angela's pokemon were recalled she then set about lifting Angela onto Stan's back, being careful as to avoid waking her up. Thanks to Stan's Hypnosis attack, though, Angela wouldn't be woken up so easily. After setting Angela on Stan's back and making sure she wouldn't fall off, Crystal took a quick look around.

"There's kind of a fork in the road here. I didn't notice it before because of that sudowoodo," Crystal said, noticing now that there was a path going west and a path going south. Even though Goldenrod was technically to the west of Violet City, Crystal knew she wanted to take the south path.

_I'm pretty sure the east path eventually turns north, but the south path turns west and then south again once we're near the National Park_, Crystal thought. After making her decision, Crystal turned to Stan and pointed toward the southern path.

"Okay, let's go Stan." Stan nodded and started off at a slow trot with Crystal following along beside him.

Crystal and Stan walked mostly in silence from that point on. There wasn't much conversation to be had with a pokemon, afterall. Nor did Crystal really have much to say. The two of them continued on like that, with Stan carrying the sleeping Angela on his back, until they were near the gatehouse for the National Park. They weren't going in, but they did pass by.

Near that gatehouse was a young-looking figure, slightly taller than Crystal but features almost completely concealed under a black trenchcoat. A wide-brimmed, black hat covered his head and a his face was almost completely hidden in the shadow of his collar and hat. Crystal wasn't going to pay any attention to him as she passed by, but then he decided to call out to her.

"Not a very good bodyguard if she's sleeping on the job, is she?"

Crystal froze in her tracks and then slowly turned to face the boy hidden in the shadows of the nearby trees. "What... what did you say?"

The boy pushed away from the tree and walked out onto the path, but was still facing away from Crystal. "I said, she can't be a very good bodyguard if she's asleep on the job." The boy's voice was unusually deep as he spoke. So much so, in fact, that she realized immediately that he was trying to disguise it.

He definitely doesn't want anyone to know who he is for some reason, Crystal thought, narrowing her eyes at the shadowy figure. "Who are you?" she asked.

"Someone who shouldn't exist," the figure replied, finally turning to face Crystal. She still couldn't see his face well enough to recognize him in spite of this. In fact, she was pretty sure he was wearing a mask over his eyes.

"That's not exactly helpful," Crystal replied sharply. The figure shrugged.

"I'm not in a position to be helpful," he said, then slipped his hands into the pockets of his coat. "Now, let me ask you something: Are you aware of the Sanctuary, and the so-called angels who safeguard it?"

"The Sanctuary?" Crystal repeated in confusion. The shadowy figure let out a laugh.

"Well isn't that something! That 'angel' that claims to be your bodyguard is from the Sanctuary herself, but she hasn't told you a thing about it?" He then shrugged. "Well, I suppose it doesn't matter anymore. The Sanctuary is gone, its angels fallen in defeat, and the legendary beasts that once rested there now hide from those who have shattered their haven."

Crystal stared at the figure in disbelief for a few seconds and then shook her head. "You're nuts," she said simply. "You're nuts, she's nuts, and nothing you said even remotely made sense."

"If you don't believe me, then why don't you ask her?" the figure suggested, raising a hand to point at Angela. Though the effects of Hypnosis would have long since worn off, she was still fast asleep.

"Angela?" Crystal turned to the sleeping girl. She then shook her head. "Angela wouldn't..." Crystal stopped when she heard a quiet 'pop' and turned to where the shadowy figure had been standing before. There was a thinning cloud of smoke but the shadowy figure was nowhere to be seen.

"Wh-wha?" Crystal stammered and blinked a few times in confusion. "Was he a ninja!"

* * *

><p>After her encounter with the mysterious boy, Crystal continued on her way to Goldenrod. Her mind wandered while she walked, wondering who that boy was and what he was talking about.<p>

By the time she got to Goldenrod Angela had finally woken up, sparing Crystal from the awkwardness of trying to enter the hotel dragging a sleeping Angela along with her. The hotel was on the eastern side of the city, along the edge of the water. It was something Angela appreciated at any rate. After arriving at the hotel they grabbed their key at the front desk and headed straight to their room. Crystal stopped by the door and closed it behind her once they were inside while Angela headed straight for the bed and let out a yawn.

"Haaa... wonder why I'm so tired?" she mumbled quietly. It eventually dawned to her that Crystal hadn't moved. She turned to face her and tilted her head to the side. "Something wrong?"

"Angela... what's the Sanctuary?"

"Ehh?" Angela blinked and shrugged. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Realizing that Angela wasn't going to respond to a simple inquiry, Crystal decided to try another approach. "I heard the Sanctuary was overrun and everyone there was killed."

"YOU'RE LYING!" Angela shot back quickly, flailing her arms around. "No one could beat them! Especially not May! It'd be stupid to think anyone could take on all the pokemon on the island, too! Stupid, stupid, stupid!" After her outburst she folded her arms and looked at Crystal as if expecting a rebuttal. When Crystal only smiled in return, she realized she had been fooled. "I mean... uh..."

"A bit late to try to take it back now," Crystal said to her. Angela's shoulders slumped in defeat. "Now why don't you explain what this Sanctuary is?"

Angela pouted and remained silent at first, but eventually she relented. "Okay, fine!" she said. "The Sanctuary is a place that's sealed off from the real world by a special barrier that keeps normal people out so the legendary pokemon living there can live in peace away from anyone that would try to abuse their power."

"And the girls there?"

"Some of the strongest trainers in the world!" Angela replied with a confident nod. "They keep the legendary pokemon there in line. In fact, they have almost no respect for legendary pokemon at all even though they're all really powerful and godlike and they can beat them up pretty easily even though they only have normal pokemon 'cause their pokemon are so powerful they're practically legendary themselves!"

Crystal's eye twitched. Suddenly she's an absolute motor mouth about the subject, she thought. "Okay, next question, why did they send you to be my bodyguard?"

"Dunno."

Crystal blinked. "That's it? You don't know?"

"I don't know what I don't know," Angela replied with a shrug. "May told me that I had to be your bodyguard and that she couldn't because she'd draw too much attention, but she didn't say why you needed one."

_I kinda want to know why her specifically now, but I don't think I want to ask that question,_ Crystal thought, cringing slightly. _I don't think there's any point asking her whether or not anything happened at the Sanctuary, I already got her answer to that pretty much..._

"Why did you ask all that all of a sudden anyway?" Angela asked her.

"Ah... I just overheard something on the way here," Crystal replied. She wasn't sure she wanted to mention the shadowy figure she had been talking to.

Angela stared at her suspiciously for a moment and then shrugged. "Oh well! First dibs on the shower!" she said, then bolted straight for the bathroom.

"Typical..." Crystal muttered, shaking her head. "Well, I guess she answered all of my questions anyway," she said to herself. "Except for the most important one. Namely... why would someone like May think I need a bodyguard?"

Crystal sat down on the edge of the bed to ponder this question. She never did come up with an answer and, before long, had fallen asleep on the bed. It had been one hell of a day for Crystal and her journey had only just begun.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: It occurs to me now that a missed update becomes a much bigger deal with my new job, seeing as how I work 9 - 6 now and can't work on the story until the evening. Though you'd think this would occur less often now that I don't have to go to sleep so early on Sunday. To be fair, this IS my first late chapter of the Johto Saga.<p>

Didn't actually have much planned originally for this chapter, just the bit with the Sudowoodo and Ethan showing up to catch it. With that in mind, and realizing I couldn't fill out an entire chapter with just that since the Sudowoodo was rather noticeably outmatched anyway, I ended up including some plot toward the end.

That trenchcoat-clad figure IS a previously introduced character by the way, but not one that's appeared too many times or has actually been given a name.

I'm sure some of you are wondering, "why go to Goldenrod first?" Well, it's a matter of timing really, which will probably become more apparent later. But for this bit of sequence breaking... honestly, the Sudowoodo roadblock makes the sleeping Snorlax from R/B/Y/Fr/Lg look like absolute genius. Sudowoodo isn't all that big and can easily be removed by any water pokemon. In fact, there isn't even an excuse as to why you can't just attack the damn thing. I'm sure if your pokemon started beating up on it it wouldn't keep on pretending to be a tree.

It's kinda like when you're in an ice cave and there's icicles blocking your path that you need to remove. Your characters all have these really useful fire spells and what not that could probably remove the icicles pretty easily, to say nothing of their other abilities, but you end up having to beat up icicles hanging from the ceiling instead so they drop on the icicles below and shatter them.

What's really disheartening is that the scene I described is real and is from another fairly popular game...


	5. Chapter 5: Inevitable

**Chapter 5**

**Inevitable**

"There's so much to do in Goldenrod I don't know where to start!" Crystal said excitedly, a map of the city in her hands as she wandered the main street alongside Angela. "There's the GTS, the gym, the radio tower, the department store, and there's a daycare nearby but we can check that out on the way out of the city..."

"You sound pretty excited..." Angela muttered, raising an eyebrow at Crystal. "Weren't you coming this way to head of that Silver guy?"

"He has to come through Goldenrod anyway, and he'll probably be slower getting to Azalea than we were getting to Goldenrod," Crystal pointed out. "So we have some time to look around anyway, why not check out the city a bit?"

"Ehh... do what you want then..." Angela mumbled, then started to move off ahead of Crystal.

"Huh? Where are you going?" Crystal asked her.

"I need more pokemon," Angela replied. "So I'm going to the waterfront to catch some!"

Crystal watched as Angela then continued on her way, heading toward the eastern waterfront of Goldenrod City. After Angela was out of earshot, Crystal let out a sigh. "She's really lacking any qualifications as a bodyguard I think..."

Crystal took a quick look around at her surroundings, then at her map again. "Well, guess I'll check out the gym first then."

* * *

><p>Crystal made her way across town to the Goldenrod City gym, which was near the central street through the city. On the outside, the gym didn't look any different from the gym in Violet City. It was so identical that Crystal briefly wondered if the Violet City gym had been transferred to Goldenrod overnight.<p>

Opening the doors and stepping inside, though, Crystal found some noticeable differences. There was a lot more pink, for one. The walls and ceiling of the gym were painted pink. The floor was white, but had a pink outline for the battlefield. The battlefield was inside more pink lines which marked out the unmistakable shape of a clefairy on the floor.

"This is such a stereotypical girl's gym that I think I'm a bit offended..." Crystal said quietly, then took another look around the gym. There was no sign of the gym leader, but she could see a piece of paper stuck to the back wall of the gym. Crystal quickly crossed the gym to see what the paper said.

"Gone to the radio tower?" Crystal read aloud, blinking in confusion. "Well, guess I'm going there next then."

Letting out a sigh, Crystal turned and left the gym.

* * *

><p>The radio tower was one of the places that Crystal had been wanting to visit, though she hadn't planned on doing so until after battling Whitney. Because Whitney was apparently there as well, though, she found herself entering the tall, black building much earlier than expected.<p>

Immediately inside the radio tower was a large lobby with a long counter along the nearby wall. Several receptionists stood behind this counter. Crystal moved down the length of the counter until she came upon a pink-suited receptionist with a sign behind her advertising a quiz campaign. A pink-haired girl in a white t-shirt and shorts stood nearby, deep in thought.

"This quiz is tough... I can't figure out any of these questions at all..." Crystal heard the girl muttering.

_Is it really that tough?_ Crystal wondered. Curious about the quiz campaign, and its prize, Crystal approached the receptionist to see for herself.

"Hello there!" the woman at the desk greeted Crystal excitedly. "We're currently holding an exciting quiz campaign! Get all the questions right and you can win a radio card for your pokegear. But get any question wrong and you'll have to start from the beginning!"

Isn't this just an advertising campaign in disguise? Crystal wondered. In response to the lady's question, Crystal nodded.

The lady behind the counter clapped her hands together. "Excellent!" she replied. "Now, first question! Can you access a town map from your pokegear?"

_This contest would be pointless to anyone who didn't have a pokegear,_ Crystal thought. She had her own pokegear stored away, of course. She had yet to have any use for it, in spite of all the features it had. Of course, she HAD used it before, and thus knew the answer to the quiz lady's question.

"Of course, it's one of the more basic functions really," Crystal replied.

"CORRECT!" the quiz yelled way too excitedly. "Next question! Are all Nidorina female?"

Crystal blinked. "Umm... yes?"

"CORRECT!" the quiz lady cheered.

_Wasn't that question way too obvious?_ Crystal wondered, then glanced at the pink haired girl who was watching her with great interest. _For most people at least..._

"Third question! Does Kurt, the Poke Ball Creator, uses apricots as Ingredients?"

"I've heard of apicot berries and I've heard of apricorns, but I've never heard of apricots. So I'm going with no," Crystal replied. Of course, she also recalled hearing one time that there was someone that made pokeballs from apricorns. But she dismissed the idea as silly.

"Correct! Fourth question! Is it true that it's impossible to use TM's on a magikarp?"

"Yeah, pretty sure that's kinda common knowledge too..." Crystal replied to the quiz lady.

"R-really!" the pink-haired girl said in disbelief. "You mean you can't even teach them something like Water Pulse!"

_Is this girl for real!_ Crystal wondered.

"Final question..." The quiz lady began, her tone suddenly low to make it seem more dramatic. "In Professor Oak's popular show, Pokemon Talk, is he on with Marie?"

"It's Mary," Crystal replied. "I know that one for sure. I used to listen to the show all the time back home."

"Well now you can listen to Pokemon Talk on the go!" The quiz lady said, then handed Crystal a pokegear card. "Congratulations! You've gotten all the questions right! Enjoy your new radio card!"

"Well that's kinda neat," Crystal said. She took the radio card and looked at it in her hand. The card was completely unremarkable, but the data on the card would allow her pokegear to function as a radio.

"Wow! You're amazing!" the pink-haired girl said to her. "I never would have gotten that last question!"

"That question wasn't that hard... in fact, they're all yes or no questions," Crystal replied, narrowing her eyes at the older girl.

"Actually, Mary and Marie sound quite similar. It's not unusual that the wording of the question could cause some doubt," a man's voice said to them. Crystal turned to address the man and gasped. An older man in a white coat, looking fit for his age, was standing only a short distance behind Crystal.

"Professor Oak!"

The professor chuckled. "Is it really so unbelievable that I would be here?" he said. "Afterall, I do have a radio show here."

"W-well that's true..." Crystal stammered.

"And you're Crystal, correct?" the professor asked her. "I've heard much about you."

Crystal blinked in disbelief. "You have? ...Oh, you must have been talking to Professor Elm."

The professor hesitated briefly before replying. "Of course. You left on your pokemon journey only recently, correct?" he asked her. "I've been hoping to meet with."

"You have?" Crystal asked. The professor nodded and then reached into his coat pocket to retrieve a pink device. He then handed the device to Crystal.

"That's the latest model of my pokedex," the professor explained. "I've been hoping to give that to you for some time now. It's a handy tool for any trainer."

Crystal pressed the button on the front of the pokedex, flipping it open and turning it on. To her surprise the pokedex already had her registered, showing her name on the opening screen. "Wow! Umm, thanks!" she said to the professor.

"Make good use of it," the professor replied, nodding to her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I must be getting back to my laboratory in Kanto. Good luck on your journey, Crystal." After wishing Crystal good luck, the professor made his way toward the exit and left the radio tower.

"Well now I see why you were able to complete that quiz!" the pink haired girl, who had been silent all this time, said to Crystal. "Yeah, if Professor Oak gave you one of those then there's no way you're an ordinary trainer!" she said while pointing at Crystal's newly obtained pokedex.

"I'm starting to get that impression..." Crystal said quietly.

"So are you looking to challenge the gym leader?" the girl asked her.

"Ah!" Crystal gasped as she finally remembered why she came to the radio tower in the first place. "That's right! There was a note that said she would be here!"

The pink-haired girl grinned. "Well you're looking at her! The cutie of a gym leader who uses cute pokemon, Whitney!"

"Maybe the gym leader is someone who works here..." Crystal mused, scratching her chin.

"I'm telling you I'm the gym leader!" Whitney yelled.

* * *

><p>The GTS in Goldenrod City was located on its own little peninsula on the eastern side of the city. A tall, solitary building completely surrounded by water. Fishing rod in one hand, Angela stood back and admired the building from the water's edge.<p>

"So that's the GTS, huh? I wonder if I would find any interesting water-type pokemon from around the world?" Angela then shrugged and turned to face the water.

"Well, no point wondering about those pokemon when I could be fishing for whatever's down there instead!" she said loudly. She then cast her line out into the water. At the end of the line was what looked like a pokeball containing bait. The ball opened in the water and would pull in any curious water pokemon temporarily, allowing Angela to pull them in so she could battle them herself.

After casting her line, Angela sat by the edge of the water and waited. It was a few minutes before she even got her first bite, but the pokemon Angela reeled back in the fishing rod's pokeball turned out to be a magikarp. Angela quickly threw it back.

"Bleh. Even in Johto the water is clogged with magikarp," Angela grumbled. She gave her line another good cast out into the water and sat down again. "I know they evolve into gyarados, but raising a magikarp would be a pain..."

Fishing for pokemon was very much a waiting game, something one might not expect Angela to have the patience for. However, she was no stranger to fishing. Even though it was sometimes several minutes between bites, and all she seemed to find were magikarp, she still kept fishing.

Eventually her patience was rewarded. After fishing for some time she got another bite and this time the pokeball, which was partially clear so she could see the shrunken pokemon inside it, had something different inside. The pokemon inside it was shaped like a star with a red sphere at its core.

"Oh wow! Finally something that's not a magikarp!" she said excitedly. As she reeled the pokeball back it opened up and released the pokemon on the edge of the pier. This was normally the point where a trainer would battle the pokemon they reeled in to try to catch it, and the wild staryu Angela reeled in was certainly sporting for a fight after being rudely dragged out of the water, but Angela had other ideas.

Angela reached into her backpack and pulled out a light blue colored pokeball with a black, net-like pattern over it. "With these pokeballs, I won't even have to fight you!" Angela said, then threw the pokeball at the wild staryu. The pokeball popped open on contact and rather than a red beam a blue net came out of the pokeball to pull the wild pokemon inside.

The pokeball was, in fact, a net ball. A type of pokeball that worked especially well on water or bug pokemon. Naturally, they were Angela's preferred choice of pokeball. The staryu that had been pulled inside struggled against the net ball, causing it to shake several times. In the end though, despite being at full strength, the pokeball locked shut with the staryu trapped inside. Angela grinned as she walked over to the pokeball and picked it up.

"Works everytime!" she said to herself. "I think that was a staryu. That's a pretty good catch, so I think I'm good for now. I'll head back to the pokemon center and wait for Crystal."

* * *

><p>Crystal, meanwhile, was now back in the gym. She was positioned on one side of the gym's battlefield while Whitney, the gym leader, was positioned on the other side and looking rather annoyed.<p>

_I still can't believe she's the gym leader, _Crystal thought to herself. _Isn't this the one that apparently causes a lot of trouble for new trainers? I bet she couldn't tell a pikachu from a marill..._

"I have to say, you're quite something to not recognize ME of all gym leaders!" Whitney said indignantly. "Just for that, I'm definitely not going to let you win!" Whitney sharply pointed a finger at Crystal. "When you walk out of this gym today you'll have no choice but to acknowledge my abilities as a gym leader!"

"Somehow I doubt that..." Crystal muttered under her breath.

"We'll use two pokemon each!" Whitney announced and then held up two pokeballs in one of her hands. "I've got my two, now pick out your's!"

"Okay." Crystal reached down to her belt and took a pokeball in each hand. "I'll use these two, then," she said, then held up the pokeballs for Whitney to see. She jokingly wondered if Whitney could actually count past two.

"Then let's get started! Clefairy, I choose you!" Whitney called out, releasing her first pokemon from its pokeball. One of the pokeballs in her hand opened and released a small, pink fairy pokemon onto the battlefield.

_Somehow I'm not surprised,_ Crystal thought, then pointed one of her pokeballs toward the battlefield. "Rito, I choose you! Go!" she called out, releasing Rito from his pokeball. He appeared on Crystal's side of the battlefield and flicked his headleaf back.

"Rito, attack Clefairy with Poison Powder!" Crystal called out. Rito tossed his headleaf back again before whirling it around to attack, releasing a purple cloud of poison into the air. The poison floated through the air and surrounded Clefairy, but Clefairy didn't seem at all bothered by it and just stood there with a vacant, open-mouthed expression on her face.

Are her pokemon dumb too? Too dumb to feel pain? Crystal wondered. To her surprise, though, Whitney had a smirk on her face.

"Sorry! But you can't poison a clefairy," Whitney said to Crystal. "I mean, technically you can, but they're completely immune to any indirect form of damage! Including poison!"

"Well that just figures..." Crystal muttered.

"Our turn now! Clefairy, Encore!" Whitney called out eagerly. Clefairy smiled and began clapping her hands together, causing a burst of applause to erupt from out of nowhere. Rito was beaming at the applause.

"-Well, who am I to ignore an encore?-" Rito said. A smug smile was plastered across his face now. He then twirled his leaf around to release more poisonous powder. Another poisonous cloud surrounded Clefairy but, again, it had no effect on her.

"Now let's use Mimic, Clefairy!" Whitney commanded next. Clefairy began to wave her fingers around, producing an odd effect that allowed her to learn Rito's Poison Powder technique just as he was trying to blast Clefairy with even more of it.

I already see where this is going, Crystal thought as she held out Rito's pokeball. "Rito, that's enough for now. Return!" she called out. Rito was shocked by Crystal's statement but didn't even have time to turn around to look at her before being recalled into his pokeball. Crystal then pointed her other pokeball toward the field once Rito had been returned.

"Yippy, your turn now! Go!" Crystal released her second pokemon onto the battlefield, the wooper Yippy. Yippy wasn't exactly the smartest pokemon in Crystal's party. Wooper weren't exactly known for their intelligence to begin with, but Yippy especially was practically helpless on his own. It was that lack of intelligence that landed the young wooper in Crystal's possession originally.

"Then I guess this pokemon will have to be the target of Clefairy's newly obtained technique! Clefairy, Poison Powder!" Clefairy began waving her hands around again like she did when she copied Rito's technique, but this time she was using it. A poisonous powder began to flow out toward Yippy from her body.

"Yippy, counter with Mud Shot!" Crystal called out. Yippy opened his mouth and spat out a large blob of mud at Clefairy, taking out most of the poison before hitting Clefairy. Clefairy was knocked off her feet and covered in mud. Yippy didn't escape unharmed, though, as a small cloud of poison - just the size of Yippy's head - managed to reach the water pokemon. Yippy made no effort to avoid it, breathing it in instead.

_That would have been easy to avoid, Yippy,_ Crystal thought to herself, letting out a sigh.

Whitney, meanwhile, was looking pretty upset. "Hey!" she called out. "Your pokemon got my Clefairy all covered in mud!"

Crystal smirked. "Then allow us to clean her off! Yippy, Water Gun!" Yippy opened his mouth again and spat out a quick spurt of water. The water struck Clefairy in the face again, knocking off some of the mud and causing her to stumble back a bit.

"Oh, very funny!" Whitney shot back. She stuck her tongue out at Crystal. "Don't think we're just going to stand back and let you attack! Not for one second! Clefairy, Pound!"

"Wasn't even thinking it!" Crystal replied. "Yippy, Slam!"

The two pokemon charged toward each other. Yippy was waddling across the gym while Clefairy crossed the battlefield in several small hops, delivering a punch to Yippy's face on the final hop. Yippy was knocked off his feet but quickly hopped back up and spun around to slam his tail into the side of Clefairy's head, knocking her out almost instantly. She hit the floor on her side and stayed there.

"Hmph... not bad, but it's not unusual for someone to defeat my Clefairy," Whitney said as she recalled her pokemon.

_If it's not unusual for people to beat Clefairy, then shouldn't that tell you something?_ Crystal thought, resisting the urge to voice her opinions of Whitney and her pokemon. Crystal was starting to wonder if Falkner was talking about another gym leader that makes beginner trainers cry. Afterall, Whitney didn't seem like the brightest trainer around.

"Well now you get to face my best pokemon!" Whitney proclaimed, holding out her final pokemon. "Miltank, your turn now!" she called out, releasing a pink cow pokemon that stood roughly four feet tall. The pokemon had a smile on its face and, all in all, looked completely non-threatening.

_That's her final pokemon?_ Crystal thought, frowning. _Pink and cutesy. Why am I not surprised?_

"Miltank, Stomp!" Whitney called out.

"Yippy, use..." Crystal began to say, but she barely had time to finish speaking before Miltank was ready to attack. The miltank ran forward and then rolled to quickly cross the battlefield with surprising speed for a cow pokemon. When she neared Yippy she uncurled her body and stamped him into the floor hard. Yippy did not get back up afterward.

"Umm... okay... guess that pokemon has a lot of power," Crystal mumbled, stunned by how easily her pokemon had been defeated. She shook off her disbelief and then finally recalled Yippy.

"See how powerful my Miltank is!" Whitney proudly proclaimed. "I bet now you understand why I'm the gym leader here!"

"I'm not done yet!" Crystal shot back. "Besides, Yippy was already weakened! Rito's still at full strength, so let's see how your Miltank deals with him!" Crystal then gripped Rito's pokeball tightly and aimed it at the battlefield. "Rito, come on out! It's your turn again!" she said, then released the vain grass pokemon onto the battlefield. Rito materialized only a few feet away from Miltank.

"Rito, use Poison Powder!" Crystal called out. Rito complied, twirling his leaf around to release a cloud of poison. To Crystal's surprise, there was no reaction from Whitney as her pokemon became shrouded in the toxic cloud. It obviously had an effect this time, though, as Miltank grimaced as the poison set in.

"Well if you're not going to do anything, we'll keep attacking!" Crystal declared. "Rito, Razor Leaf!" Rito twirled his headleaf around again, launching a barrage of sharp leaves at Miltank. This time neither trainer nor pokemon reacted as the sharp leaves cut across Miltank's body. It was easily withstanding Rito's barrage, causing Crystal to gasp in shock.

"Still think your grass-thingy can win?" Whitney said smugly. "Now you'll definitely remember that I'm a gym leader! Miltank, Stomp!" Miltank closed the distance between herself and Rito in a few quick steps and then slammed one hooved foot into his back, slamming him into the floor of the gym. Rito was able to endure the attack but was left flattened and dazed.

_She wasn't kidding! That thing has a lot of power! _Crystal realized.

"One more time, Miltank! Stomp!" Miltank raised her foot and stomped on Rito again. Rito let out a pained cry and then fell silent. This time, he was out cold. Crystal quickly recalled him.

"Looks like you lose! Too bad!" Whitney taunted Crystal. "But, hey, don't feel too bad! Just about everyone loses to my Miltank!"

_Somehow, I can totally believe that,_ Crystal thought, then let out a sigh. _Guess I'm done here then..._

Defeated, Crystal turned and left the gym.

* * *

><p>After being defeated by Whitney, Crystal made her way to the Goldenrod City pokemon center where Angela was outside waiting for her.<p>

"It's about time you got back!" Angela called out to her impatiently when she saw Crystal approaching. "Did you manage to beat the gym leader?" she asked. Crystal shook her head. "Ehhh? Why not!"

"She was a lot stronger than I thought she'd be..." Crystal replied. "Her last pokemon was really, really powerful. I'll need to figure out some way of beating it."

"Oh." Angela blinked, then shrugged and grabbed a pokeball from her belt. "Well I caught a new pokemon!" she said excitedly. "It's a staryu! I decided to name it Slicey since it kinda looks like a saw blade when it spins really fast!"

_Only you would think of that, Angela,_ Crystal thought, cringing slightly.

"So what's next, anyway?" Angela asked her. Crystal folded her arms and pondered it for a moment.

"Well, guess we shouldn't waste too much more time in Goldenrod..." she mused. "So I think we'll head for Ilex Forest to the south after I get my pokemon healed."

"This ended up being a short stopover. It's only noon," Angela replied, then shrugged. "Well, I guess we'd want to get to the forest at least. I bet that'd be a great place to set up an ambush for that Silver guy!"

_For once, I can't disagree with her,_ Crystal thought, nodding in agreement. _Ilex Forest seems like the perfect place to try to set a trap for that guy._

Having decided their next course of action, Crystal and Angela entered the pokemon center to prepare for the next leg of their journey.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: I never liked training pokemon that evolve by trade. Still don't. Just too much of a hassle.<p>

Incidentally, all your best options for dealing with Whitney's Miltank evolve by trade. Geodude, Onix, Gastly, Machop... they're all also Kanto pokemon and I personally prefer to train new pokemon when playing through a new region.

Point I'm getting at here is that Whitney always used to be a pain for me. Miltank is just a really powerful opponent for that point in the game. It's stats are good all around. Heck, even Miltank's base 70 special defense is probably close to what your own more specially-defensive pokemon are sporting at that point in the game and that's one of her weaker stats!

On another note... it's still Sunday somewhere!


	6. Chapter 6: Trouble in Ilex Forest

**Chapter 6**

**Trouble in Ilex Forest**

"This place is amazing!" Crystal said in awe, turning and looking all around as she walked through Ilex Forest. The forest was fairly dark, even though it was noon. The canopy of leaves above blotted out much of the light. It gave the surrounding terrain a mystical sort of feel.

A variety of pokemon could be seen going about their daily routines as well, which were the main draw of Crystal's attention. Caterpies could be seen crawling on some of the trees, and occassionally one would spot a tree with several metapod clinging to the trunk. Weedles and kakuna could likewise be seen, though never near the caterpie. The two species of worm pokemon seemed to keep their distance from each other.

The darkened forest was also host to pokemon that were usually nocturnal, but were now out and about in the middle of the day. Paras could be seen cultivating mushrooms near the base of trees and even zubat, a pokemon known to swarm in caves, could occassionally be seen flitting between the trees. Their relatively rare appearance in the forest made them an interesting sight as opposed to being an obstacle for trainers to overcome.

"So is this the forest where lots of people come to commit suicide?" Angela asked Crystal while the blue-haired girl was admiring the sights. The question caused Crystal to almost stumble over and she quickly spun around to face Angela.

"WHAT KIND OF A QUESTION IS THAT!" Crystal yelled, suddenly coming to a stop. Angela stopped as well to elaborate.

"Well, isn't there some forest that's dark even in the middle of the day and people often go there to hang themselves?" she asked. "And the forest is so big that they're often missing for a while but then some passerby comes across their corpse one day. Or whatever's left of it..."

"Wh-wh-what!" Crystal stuttered.

Angela thought about her question for a moment and then shook her head. "Nevermind. I'm pretty sure that forest is at the base of a mountain somewhere..."

_There's no way such a place exists!_ Crystal thought, desparately hoping it was true.

"Anyway, this place doesn't seem very special to me," Angela said, giving a nonchalant shrug. She then gestured to a nearby tree where a pair of caterpie were nibbling on leaves. "They're just wild pokemon. And not even interesting pokemon. They're just bugs..."

Crystal frowned. "It's the beauty of nature itself! See how none of these pokemon are attacking is?" Crystal said, gesturing to the pokemon in question. "They're just ignoring us and going about their business. I think this would even be a nice place to sit down and rest for a while."

Angela sighed. "Fine, suit yourself..." she muttered. She then took a pokeball from her belt and pointed to a large pond in a clearing ahead of them. "I'll be over there training." Angela then moved ahead on her own. Crystal shrugged and looked for a place nearby to sit down and watch the wild pokemon in peace.

"Typical Angela..." Crystal mumbled to herself. "Not much of a bodyguard at all..."

Meanwhile, as soon as she was at the edge of the pond, Angela took a pokeball from her belt. Aiming at the ground near the edge of the water, Angela pressed the button and released Slicey, her recently captured staryu, from its pokeball.

"Okay, Slicey, time to see what you're capable of!" Angela said, then took a quick look around. After spotting an old-looking, uninhabited tree, she turned to Slicey and pointed back at the tree. "Time to live up to your nickname! Slice down that tree with Rapid Spin!"

"-WHAT!-" Slicey cried out in confusion. "-I don't know you! I didn't even get a chance to defend myself before! And now you're already giving me a nickname and telling me to cut down a tree!-" Slicey looked at the tree, or a rough equivalent of looking considering the pokemon lacked eyes, then looked back at Angela.

"-Know what? Fine! You'll get your tree cut! Oh, you'll get your tree cut!-"

Slicey took off into the air, spinning like a saw blade and heading straight for the tree that Angela had pointed to. Using Rapid Spin, Slicey cut into the middle of the tree's trunk and sliced clean through it. The top of the tree slowly fell away shortly after.

"Alright! Good job, Slicey!" Angela cheered.

Then, to Angela's surprise, Slicey kept going to a second tree that was hiding behind the one she initially told it to attack. Slicey cut through that tree as well, though it managed to remain standing as it was a bit too wide for Slicey to cut through entirely. Slicey's attack still startled a family of zubats that were hiding in the leaves. The zubats immediately fled when Slicey cut through it.

"Hey! I only asked you to cut through that one tree!" Angela called out to Slicey.

Slicey wasn't listening to her, though. Instead, it began to turn back and moved to the other side of the pond. It flew along the opposite shore from Angela and cut down a line of trees. Several startled pokemon could be seen fleeing the scene, including a pair of bird pokemon that were carrying leeks under their wings.

Slicey cirlced around the pond entirely, circling around Angela until it was heading back in the direction she and Crystal had come from. As it did, it continued slicing through trees. It sliced through the trees that all the pokemon Crystal was watching were holed up in, cutting most of them down and sending the pokemon in all of them fleeing.

"What the!" Crystal cried out in shock and then angrily turned to Angela. "Angela! Get your pokemon under control already!"

"I can't! It won't listen to me!" Angela replied.

"Then I guess I'll have to do it," Crystal muttered, then grabbed a pokeball from her belt. Slicey finally came to a stop as Crystal turned around to face it. If Slicey had a face, its expression would be one of defiance now. Crystal aimed the pokeball she was holding at the ground before her and then released her pokemon.

"Stan, I choose you!" she called out as she released her pokemon. Stan the stantler appeared before her in a flash of red. "Stan, knock that staryu out with Hypnosis!" Stan angled his horns toward Slicey and started firing hypnotic energy waves at it. Staryu's body began to shake as the waves struck it, then eventually collapsed as it finally fell asleep.

"It's pretty bad when I have to clean up after my so-called bodyguard," Crystal muttered, glancing back at Angela. Angela rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"I don't know what happened, it just kinda went nuts on me..." Angela replied. She walked up to Crystal and Stan and then held out Slicey's pokeball to recall it.

"How did you catch it anyway?" Crystal asked her.

"I just threw a pokeball at it," Angela replied, then held up the net ball that contained Slicey for Crystal to see. "See, this kind of pokeball is really effective at catching water-type pokemon! I didn't even have to battle it!"

Crystal frowned. "Well don't you think THAT could be the problem?" she said. "If you're just throwing a pokeball at it like that, you haven't exactly earned the right to be its trainer. I think you owe it a battle at least."

"Ehh!" Angela pouted. "But I caught it fair and square!"

"Well maybe... 'Slicey' doesn't see it the same way you do," Crystal suggested. Meanwhile, on the other side of the pond, a young man could be seen frantically running around. Crystal could hear him calling out the name of a pokemon and let out a sigh.

"Look, you just tame your pokemon. I'm going to go and see if I can help that guy since your pokemon's rampage is probably what caused trouble for him." Crystal then headed toward the pond and made her way around the edge of it, leaving Angela to fend for herself.

Angela looked at the pokeball she held in her hand and let out a sigh. "Fine, guess I have no choice..." she muttered.

* * *

><p>After circling around the pond, Crystal came upon several of the trees that had been felled by Angela's Slicey. The fallen trees formed a wall of sorts, which Crystal had to circle around. When she came around to the other side of the wall of trees she found herself standing behind a small bird pokemon carrying a leek.<p>

"Is that his pokemon?" Crystal wondered aloud.

Unfortunately, the pokemon had heard her. It looked back and squawked in surprise when it saw her standing behind it, then took off running. Crystal was about to mentally slap herself when she saw the young man suddenly appear and head it off. The bird pokemon stopped in its tracks and tried to turn around and flee.

"Oh no you don't!" the young man said, pointing a pokeball at the bird. "Farfetch'd, return!" he said. A red beam fired out from the pokeball and struck the farfetch'd, dematerializing it and pulling it back into the pokeball. The young man let out a sigh of relief and then looked at Crystal.

"Thank you! If it wasn't for you, I don't think I ever would have gotten my boss's farfetch'd back," the young man said to her. "They don't like to listen to me at all, and when all those trees starting falling they both ran off on their own..."

"D-don't know anything about that," Crystal lied, forcing a smile. Her smile quickly faded when she noticed the man's choice of words. "Wait, both?"

The young man nodded. "Yes, there's two farfetch'd," he explained. "We use them to chop down trees for charcoal, but I guess we won't be needing to do that for a while." He gestured around them, pointing to the fallen trees.

_The first one was easy enough to find,_ Crystal thought to herself. _This is all Angela's fault, but I guess I'll have to be the one to help him. She better have that staryu under control after all of this._

* * *

><p>Angela, meanwhile, had released Slicey from its pokeball again and was now confronting it at a distance.<p>

"So! You won't listen to me unless I earn your respect in battle? Is that it?" Angela asked it. Slicey quickly bowed the upper half of its body in response, mimicking a nodding motion. "Hmph. Fine, have it your way!" Angela said, then reached for a pokeball from her belt.

"Bitey, you can handle this one!" she called out as she released her pokemon. The pokeball in her hand opened, releasing Bitey from his confines. Bitey eyed Slicey, anticipating a battle.

"Bitey, trap it with a Whirlpool!" Bitey raised his head, summoning a small, swirling column of water around Slicey. It was a much smaller whirlpool than what it would usually create when it was with Gorey, but the smaller whirlpool worked much better to trap and damage an opposing pokemon whereas the larger whirlpool would usually only trap the target.

Slicey, however, was having none of it. It immediately began spinning and slowly lifted into the air. Its spinning body then shot toward Bitey, cutting through the water and smashing into Bitey's face. The force of the impact flipped Bitey over and left him briefly stunned.

"Grr... aren't these things supposed to be special attackers?" Angela grumbled. "Bitey, Bite!" Bitey quickly shook off the attack and rolled over to right himself, then scanned for any sign of Slicey. Slicey was still spinning through the air, circling around for another attack. Bitey readied himself and managed to time his attack just right, biting onto one of Slicey's appendages as it moved in to attack.

Unfortunately for Bitey, his attack did little to slow Slicey down. Bitey didn't even have time to be pleased with himself before being dragged along with Slicey, spinning through the air. The extra weight did manage to throw Slicey off, though, and both pokemon slammed into a tree without Slicey cutting through it this time. The impact cracked the tree and knocked both pokemon to the ground, stunning them briefly.

"Let's try attacking from a distance, then! Bitey, Water Pulse!" Though Angela was eager in calling out the attack, Bitey was slow to respond. And for good reason. He and Slicey were both still reeling.

Slicey was actually the first to start moving again. Still dizzy, it slowly stood up and looked around. Once it got its bearings it started spinning and took off into the air again, distancing itself from Bitey and then banking to turn around and come back for another attack run.

Bitey finally righted himself as Slicey was coming in for the attack. He quickly shook off the dizziness and took aim at Slicey, then fired a pulsating blast of water at the pokemon. Slicey cut straight through it with little effort and continued on to strike Bitey in the face again, this time knocking him out completely.

"This one's being more of a pain than I thought it would..." Angela muttered as she recalled her unconscious pokemon. She clipped Bitey's pokeball back to her belt and then took her only remaining pokeball in her hand.

"Okay, Gorey, your turn now!" Angela called out, releasing the pink, think-looking pokemon from her pokeball. "Gorey, attack with Confusion!"

Gorey looked around and quickly spotted the spinning Slicey. Slicey was circling around again, avoiding hitting any trees as it came around to attack Gorey. With Slicey barreling down at her, Gorey launched her attack. Her eyes flashed and a psychic force suddenly struck Slicey, sending it careening into the ground.

"One more time, Gorey! Confusion!" Angela called out. Gorey took aim at Slicey again as the staryu was getting up and trying to get its bearings. It was wobbling on its limbs. It was obvious that it didn't have much fight left. When another psychic force fired by Gorey struck it, it went down instantly.

As she watched Slicey lose consciousness and fall over, Angela couldn't help giggling to herself. "Looks like you've got no counter for psychic attacks! Didn't see that coming, huh?" she taunted the unconscious pokemon before taking Slicey's pokeball in her hand and recalling it. She grinned at the pokeball and then clipped it back to her belt.

"Okay, let's go find Crystal now," she said to Gorey. Gorey nodded in agreement. Angela then recalled Gorey and set out to find Crystal.

* * *

><p><em>There's that other farfetch'd!<em> Crystal thought, watching the pokemon while hidden behind a tree. It had stopped in front of a wooden shrine and was scanning its surroundings warily. Crystal had spent some time wandering through the forest, trying to find the pokemon, but had finally managed to corner it in a dead end.

It's being pretty cautious now, but caution won't help it! Crystal thought with a smirk as she drew a pokeball from her belt. She then quickly threw out the pokeball toward the farfetch'd. "Stan, go! Hypnosis!" she called out. The pokeball opened when it hit the ground in front of the farfetch'd and released Stan directly in front of it, blocking its only escape route. Stan then lowered his horns, aiming them at the farfetch'd and emitting hypnotic energy waves. The farfetch'd was asleep in seconds.

"Okay, you can come and get it now," Crystal said to the young man hiding nearby. He immediately came out of hiding, pokeball in hand, and smiled when he saw the sleeping farfetch'd.

"Wow, thanks! You're a real lifesaver!" the young man said. He recalled the sleeping farfetch'd and let out a sigh of relief. "I don't know what I would have done if I had lost the boss's farfetch'd..."

"Don't worry about it!" Crystal replied.

"If you ever need anything, please stop by our store in Azalea."

"I'll keep that in mind," Crystal said, though she wondered what use she would have for charcoal. The young man then finally left, leaving Crystal alone at the shrine. Crystal walked up to the wooden shrine to take a closer look at it.

"This thing looks pretty important..." Crystal said quietly. "I'd hate to think of what would have happened if Angela's crazed pokemon happened to destroy it."

While Crystal was examining the shrine, she heard Stan suddenly let out a growl and heard a fluttering noise. She turned around in time to see a zubat flying into the branches of a tree and disappearing.

"Oh, did a wild zubat get you?" Crystal asked him.

"If a wild pokemon catches you off guard so easily, then you really are hopeless," a familiar voice said to her. Silver then stepped out from behind the very same tree Crystal had been hiding behind only moments before.

"You!"

"I have to say, I'm surprised you managed to get ahead of me," Silver said to her. "Your pokemon may be weak, but it seems you have at least some capacity to think."

Crystal glared at the boy, but then a smirk formed on her lips when she realized all his pokemon were still in their pokeballs. "More than you! You came completely unarmed!" Crystal said, pointing a finger at him. "Any suspicious movements and Stan here will..."

"Will what?" Silver asked smugly. "While I'm sure your friend would have no problem attacking a human, I doubt you'd even consider it."

"Maybe, but you'd be fine if it was just Hypnosis!" Crystal shot back.

Silver chuckled. "Well, you're right there. But before you do that, aren't you interested in knowing why I'm here?"

"...Kinda," Crystal admitted.

"Then I'll tell you," Silver replied. "I'm here to catch pokemon in preparation for challenging Azalea's gym leader, Bugsy," he said to her. "But in particular... I'm here for that." He then pointed at the shrine Crystal was standing in front of. Crystal looked back at the shrine.

"The shrine? What's so interesting about that?" Crystal asked him.

"Don't you know? That shrine is home to a legendary pokemon," he said to her, then grinned. "I thought I'd check it out for myself and see if I could awaken that pokemon, then catch it for myself!"

"Like I'd really let you!" Crystal shot back.

"By the way... doesn't it seem like there's something wrong with your stantler?" he asked her. Crystal blinked and then looked at Stan. Her pokemon was breathing heavily and seemed to be a bit shaky on his feet.

"Stan? Stan, what's wrong?" she asked worriedly. Her pokemon then suddenly lost consciousness and collapsed. "STAN!"

"Don't worry too much now. It's only fainted," Silver said with a smirk, then raised his hand into the air. The zubat from before suddenly fluttered down and perched on his hand. "Now, what were you saying before about being smarter than me?"

"You were stalling all this time..." Crystal muttered. She quickly recalled Stan and took a pokeball from her belt. "Smoochya, I choose you!" she called out, then released Smoochya the smoochum from her pokeball. Smoochya immediately started looking around and making kissy faces when she appeared.

"A smoochum. Hmph," Silver muttered. "Zubat, move in and then use Supersonic."

"Smoochya, Confusion!" Crystal called out.

Zubat took off from Silver's hand and started to fly toward Smoochya. It was suddenly knocked out of the air as a psychic forced struck it, but it quickly recovered and started flying low to the ground. It then let out a high pitched shriek, the frequency of which had an unsual effect on Smoochya's mind and left her confused.

"Enjoy the only hit you'll land," Silver said to her. "Zubat, use the trees as coverage and make diving Leech Life attacks while its confused." Zubat continued to fly on a direct course toward Smoochya, ramming into her and then biting her. After a quick bite that drained some of Smoochya's energy, the Zubat took off again and flew into the trees.

"Come on, you can do it, Smoochya! Attack his pokemon with Confusion again!" Crystal called out desparately. To her dismay, Smoochya responded by running straight into a tree instead. The same tree that Zubat had been hiding out in. Zubat responded by diving down next to her and biting her again. Smoochya cried out in pain as the Zubat drained some of her strength from her.

"Zubat, finish this with Bite." Silver commanded. Zubat let go of Smoochya, only to quickly bite her again and this time with much more force. Smoochya let out a pained cry and then fell silent as she lost consciousness.

"Smoochya..." Crystal mumbled remorsefully. She quietly recalled her pokemon and returned its pokeball to her belt, then took another one in her hand. "Mary, I guess it's your turn then! Get out there and avenge Smoochya!" Crystal called out, releasing the wooly, electric sheep pokemon from its pokeball. Mary bleated happily when she emerged.

"Mary, zap that pokemon with Thundershock!" Mary let out a loud cry and then fired a blast of electricity at Zubat, using static built up in her wool coat to power the attack. Zubat screeched in pain as the electricity struck it and fell over.

"Zubat, Toxic." At its trainer's command, Zubat forced itself to stand up and then opened its mouth to spit a vile blob of poison at Mary. Mary cried out in shock when the blob landed on her face. She quickly shook her head, shaking the poison off, but it was too late. Some of the poison had already seeped into her body.

"So that's how you beat Stantler..." Crystal muttered. "Mary, one more time! Thundershock!" Mary let out a cry as she fired another blast of electricity at Zubat. Zubat shrieked and then fell silent almost immediately as the electricity coursed through it, knocking it out.

"A minor setback," Silver muttered as he recalled his zubat. He quickly returned the pokeball to his belt and swapped for another one. "Gastly, your turn now," he said calmly, releasing a ghostly, gas-like pokemon that seemed to be nothing more than a floating face.

"Gastly, Hypnosis." Silver commanded. Gastly's gassy body began to spin, though its head remained stationary. Hypnotic waves of psychic energy were being emitted from its body as well, causing Mary to become drowsy and eventually fall asleep.

"Now finish it with Shadow Ball." Gastly's body began to spin and shadows appeared to be drawn toward it, forming into a ball. Gastly launched the ball of shadowstuff at the sleeping Mary, hitting her hard and knocking her off her feet. The Shadow Ball itself wasn't enough to knock her out, but she soon went from being asleep to being fainted anyway as the poison continued to do its work.

"All because of that poison..." Crystal said quietly as she recalled Mary. She was now down three pokemon, including Stan who was easily her strongest pokemon at the moment. After considering her options for a moment, she took a pokeball from her belt and smirked.

"Hooty, I choose you!" she called out, releasing the owl pokemon from its pokeball. Hooty, she realized, was the perfect counter against Silver's Gastly. Or at least, that seemed to be the case. Silver didn't seem at all worried, though.

"Gastly, Curse," Silver commanded. A dark, cloudy aura fell about Silver's pokemon and then took the shape of a pin. To Crystal's utter shock and horror, the pin then stabbed through the ghost pokemon. There didn't seem to be any damage, but the pokemon was obviously in immense pain. A similar dark aura fell around Crystal's own pokemon and Hooty immediately began shuddering.

"What the...? What's going on!" Crystal said in confusion.

"You don't seem to get it, so allow me to explain," Silver said to her. "Curse is a technique that channels dark powers. In most pokemon, it drains away their stamina but fills them with a power from beyond the grave that increases their physical capabilities. But for ghost pokemon, the technique functions differently."

"Differently how?" Crystal asked.

"For a ghost pokemon, the user gives up half of their own remaining strength to put a curse on the opposing pokemon. The curse steadily and rapidly drains the opposing pokemon's strength until it can no longer fight." He then smirked and added, "By the way, tick-tock, tick-tock!"

"Huh?" Crystal blinked and then looked at Hooty, who was still shuddering in pain as the curse took its toll on her. "Ack! No! Hooty, quick! Use Hypnosis!" Hooty focused on Gastly and her eyes suddenly seemed to be swirling to Gastly. Gastly began to feel drowsy and then soon fell asleep. Shortly after, however, Hooty collapsed. The curse had drained the last of her strength.

"My pokemon is indeed asleep now, but it seems your's has fallen," Silver said smugly. "What's that now? Two left on your side?"

"Can't believe I fell for another stall tactic..." Crystal grumbled as she recalled Hooty. Not wanting to give up the one advantage she now had, she quickly swapped for a pokeball from her belt. "Yippy, come on out! We have to end this one quickly!" she called out, releasing the constantly smiling, yet incredibly stupid Yippy from his pokeball.

"Yippy, quick! Attack with Water Gun!" Crystal called out. Yippy opened his mouth and spat a quick shot of water at Gastly, hitting it and knocking it back. To Crystal's dismay, however, the Gastly floated up off the ground shortly after being hit. It was wobbling slightly in the air, obviously very weak at this point, but now awake and still capable of battling.

"Good, but not good enough," Silver said to her. "Gastly, use Hypnosis." Gastly's body began to spin again, emitting hypnotic energy waves toward Yippy. Yippy fell asleep, though it was hard to tell at a glance. The expression on his face somehow remained unchanged.

"Now, Gastly, use Curse." Silver commanded. A black cloud surrounded Gastly and then formed into a pin that stabbed through the pokemon, fainting it instantly. A similar dark cloud then descended upon the sleeping Yippy, putting a dreadful curse on him.

"Wh-what! You'd really sacrifice your own pokemon like that!" Crystal said in shock.

"Are you really that surprised?" Silver asked her as he recalled his fainted Gastly. "Something like this is only a minor setback. Nothing a trip to the nearest pokemon center won't fix."

_I guess nothing this guy does should surprise me!_ Crystal thought, grimacing.

"Guess now it's time for the one pokemon you've been waiting for to make its debut," Silver said with a smug smirk as he took his final pokeball in his hand. "I think it's only fair to warn you... he's changed quite a bit since you've last seen him," Silver said, then released his final pokemon.

The pokemon that appeared had an almost egg-like look to its body thanks to the strange pattern formed by the white skin and large blue blotches dotted throughout it. The lower half of the pokemon's jaw was white as well. Red spines stood tall atop the pokemon's head, giving it a height of over three and a half feet. It was pretty obvious to Crystal what this pokemon was. It was the stolen totodile, only now evolved into a croconaw.

"Croconaw, grab her pokemon with Bite and then toss it around!" Silver called out. Croconaw proceeded to do just that. He walked up to Yippy and snapped his powerful jaws tightly around the sleeping pokemon. Croconaw then spun around and released Yippy, flinging him into the nearest tree. Yippy was knocked out instantly thanks to his strength being drained by the curse.

"Yippy... you did your best," Crystal said as she recalled her pokemon. Now she was down to her last pokemon as well. She clipped Yippy's pokeball to her belt and then took her final pokeball in her hand.

"Mine might not be evolved, but he can still fight! Rito, I choose you!" Crystal called out, releasing the vain grass pokemon from his pokeball though. For once, Rito wasn't concerned with his appearance when he emerged. The moment he saw Croconaw his jaw dropped.

"-Whoa! What happened? Someone beat you over the head with the ugly stick!-" Rito asked in shock, revolted by the new appearance of his old acquaintance.

"-I've been beaten over the head with a few sticks...-" Croconaw growled quietly.

"This will still be an easy match for us," Silver said confidently. "Croconaw, attack with Bite."

"Don't be so sure about that!" Crystal shot back. "Rito, Poison Powder!"

Rito began swinging his headleaf around as Croconaw charged toward him. A cloud of poison was released, which Croconaw charged straight into. Croconaw winced in pain but continued his attack regardless, opening his powerful jaws and snapping them shut around Rito's body. Rito cried out in pain and struggled in Croconaw's grip. Eventually his squirming caused Croconaw to let him go.

"Just means we'll have to win quickly," Silver said. "And Croconaw has more than enough power to do that. Croconaw, demonstrate this with another Bite attack!" It felt like Rito had only just freed himself from Croconaw's grip when the water pokemon suddenly snapped his jaws tightly around him again and hoisted him off the ground. Rito struggled against Croconaw's grip but was unable to free himself this time.

_If we could get the chance to attack then Rito could hit him with Razor Leaf, but Rito is just too small! Croconaw can keep him pinned way too easily like this!_ Crystal thought. _There must be some way to..._

"Now follow up quickly with Scratch!" Croconaw extended his claws and took one good swipe at the pokemon he had trapped in his jaws. Rito cried out in pain and then fell silent. With Rito clearly unconscious, Croconaw finally let him drop to the ground.

"I guess not..." Crystal said quietly. Her last pokemon had now fallen as well. Crystal recalled him and placed his pokeball back on her belt.

"Looks like the ball's back in my court," Silver said with a smirk. He then recalled Croconaw to keep the poison from weakening him too much. "Now why don't you run along before I..."

"Crystal? Crystal, where are you?" a voice called out from nearby.

"Tch... why did she have to show up now?" Silver muttered, glancing off in the direction of the voice. He then looked back at Crystal and glared. "Looks like I'll be taking my leave then, but this isn't over. Not by a longshot," he said to her. Silver then fled the scene, turning and running in the direction of Azalea Town. Moments later, Angela arrived coming from the opposite direction.

"Ehh? Crystal, why'd you come all the way out here?" Angela asked her.

I can't believe I'm actually happy to see her for a change, Crystal thought, shaking her head sadly. She let out a sigh. "Nevermind... that's not important anyway. Silver was just here and he's making a run for Azalea."

"He was!" Angela said in disbelief. "We need to go after him then!"

"Right," Crystal replied, nodding in agreement. The two girls then took off running, hoping to catch up with him.

Neither of the girls noticed the wooden shrine opening as they left, nor the small, yellow pokemon that fell out of it. A small, yellow pokemon with an oddly shaped ear.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: It's still Sunday somewhere! Have I used that one before...?<p>

My original idea for Ilex Forest had the scene with the Farfetch'd happening on the way to Goldenrod. Angela would get upset when the guy asked them to find his Farfetch'd for him, but go look for them anyway. On her own. After the first one returned beaten up and scared, Crystal would have went after the remaining Farfetch'd alone.

I think I like this way better, if only because it kinda ties the whole Farfetch'd thing to an actual event in the plot rather than them just running off on their own.


	7. Chapter 7: Team Rocket's Return

**Chapter 7**

**Team Rocket's Return**

Angela and Crystal quickly made their way out of Ilex Forest and into the neighbouring town of Azalea. They had hoped they would find Silver there, but there was no sign of him anywhere. But Silver wasn't the only thing they couldn't find.

"Where are all the slowpoke?" Crystal wondered aloud, stopping in front of the city's pokemon center.

"Slowpoke?" Angela asked. "Why would there be slowpoke?"

"Azalea's a town renowned for being pretty much overrun with slowpoke from a nearby well. You're supposed to be able to see them lounging around just about anywhere," Crystal explained, gesturing out toward the town itself. "But we haven't seen any at all since arriving."

"It's almost evening, maybe they've gone back to the well?" Angela suggested. Crystal just stared at her in response and Angela soon realized what she said and slapped her hand against her forehead. "Oh yeah... slowpoke..."

"Yeah. They don't usually move at all," Crystal said, nodding. "And they never move as a group."

"Maybe we could ask around inside the pokemon center?" Angela suggested, then turned to enter the building. The sliding door suddenly opened as Angela approached the building and she walked straight into the young boy that was leaving, knocking both of them to the ground.

Whose bright idea was it to have opaque red doors on pokemon centers anyway? Crystal wondered. When she realized who Angela had walked into, though, she gasped.

"Ow! Why don't you watch where you're going!" Angela growled while rubbing her head.

"I could say the same to you!" the boy replied. He shook his head and sat up. He blinked when he finally saw who he had walked into and then, looking past her, saw Crystal and grinned. "Oh, hey! It's Crystal and Angela!"

"Ethan?" Crystal said in disbelief. "When did you get here?" she asked him.

"Just now!" Ethan replied, then quickly hopped up on his feet. He extended a hand to Angela, offering to help her up, but Angela got up on her own. "Umm, right..." he said, then coughed as if clearing his throat. "Anyway! I came through Union Cave just now and stopped by the pokemon center to heal my pokemon. When did you two get here?"

"Just now, too," Crystal replied. "We came through Ilex Forest and had another run-in with Silver..."

"Crystal did," Angela pointed out. "I was busy re-catching a pokemon. We would have had him if I was there!"

_Should you really be bragging that you weren't there?_ Crystal and Ethan both thought.

Crystal then let out a sigh. "I'm just no match for that guy. I don't think I've gotten any closer to being able to beat him..."

"Then you need to train!" Ethan said to her. "If you want to catch up to him you've gotta train hard! Or else he's just going to get ahead of you!"

"So how should I do that?" Crystal asked.

"Battling, of course!" Ethan replied, then grinned and folded his arms. "In fact, why don't we have a battle! That'd be a good place to start!"

"Sure!" Crystal enthusiastically replied, excited about having the chance to battle Ethan.

Ethan grinned. "Great!" he said while pumping his fist into the air. "Then Ethan the Gold Trainer will test your strength in combat!"

* * *

><p>Crystal and Angela made a quick stop inside the pokemon center to heal their pokemon. Ethan waited patiently while they did so. Once their pokemon were healed, the trio headed to the southern end of the town. For the time being, their conflict with Silver and the mysterious absence of the slowpoke seemed to have been all but forgotten.<p>

"Since I only have three pokemon, we'll use three pokemon each. Agreed?" Ethan asked Crystal. Crystal nodded and both of them drew a pokeball.

_Has Crystal gotten any stronger at all since she left?_ Angela wondered. She shrugged and then plopped down in the grass, folding her arms in front of her. _Guess we'll find out now. I doubt it though..._

"Mimitree, I choose you!" Ethan called out loudly as he thrust his pokeball forward. The pokeball opened up and released Mimitree, the sudowoodo he had caught with the help of Crystal and Angela previously, from its pokeball. Mimitree remained virtually still when he appeared, almost as if he was still trying to mimick a tree.

"Stan, you're first up! Go!" Crystal called out as she released her own pokemon. The pokeball opened and Stan the stantler emerged from it, standing proud and tall as always. His calm demeanour almost never changed.

"Stan, use Hypnosis!" Crystal called out quickly, hoping to make the first move. Stan aimed his horns at Mimitree and began releasing hypnotic waves of psychic energy. With Mimitree's stillness, it was hard to tell if the technique had any effect on it.

"Umm... then I guess we attack now!" Crystal said, unsure herself. "Stan, use Tackle to knock it over and follow up with Stomp!" Stan nodded and began to move forward, charging toward Mimitree.

"Think we'll be disabled that easily! Mimitree, Low Kick!" Ethan called out as Stan approached. Mimitree had used his deception to his advantage, making himself appear to be asleep. Mimitree dropped down just before Stan collided with him and kicked out a foot, sweeping Stan's legs out from under him. Stan ended up doing a headbutt straight into the ground.

"Now, follow up with Wood Hammer!" Mimitree hopped back up and then quickly spun around. While Stan was trying to get back on his feet, Mimitree threw himself into him and brought both pokemon crashing to the ground. Stan took the hardest blow from the impact, but both pokemon were quick to get back on their feet, distance themselves, then turn to stare each other down.

"Stan, Tackle!"

"Mimitree, Wood Hammer again!"

The two pokemon started running and closed the distance within seconds, slamming into each other. Crystal found herself wondering why she had gone with such a strategy. Mimitree was already proving herself to be the more powerful of the two and Stan's own attacks were having little effect on it. Thus, when the two pokemon smashed into each other, only Stan stayed down. Mimitree got right back up and was a bit wobbly on his feet, but was otherwise still quite capable of fighting. Crystal quickly recalled her pokemon.

"Ya gotta put more thought into your attacks than that, Crystal!" Ethan called out to her. "Especially when your pokemon is at a disadvantage!"

"So... should I have switched pokemon?" Crystal asked him.

"HECK NO! I'm not suggesting anything that drastic!" Ethan replied as if he was apalled by the thought. "A type disadvantage is no reason to recall a pokemon from battle! Use your head first and come up with a way to get around that type disadvantage!"

"Well let's see if you follow your own advice, then!" Crystal shot back, then drew a pokeball from her belt. "Rito, I choose you!" Crystal held out the pokeball and pressed the button to release her pokemon. The pokeball opened up and Rito the chikorita emerged onto the field, tossing his headleaf back as usual.

"Rito, Razor Leaf!" Rito quickly twirled his headleaf around, unleashing a barrage of sharp leaves upon Mimitree. Mimitree crossed his arms to brace himself against the attack. The sharp leaves sliced across Mimitree's rocky exterior, causing the pokemon to grunt in pain. He stumbled and nearly fell over after the last few leaves hit, but was able to stay on his feet.

"You'll need more power than that to get past Mimitree's defenses! Mimitree, Flail!" Mimitree gathered his strength and then rushed forward, flailing his arms wildily. He suddenly threw himself at Rito and landed on top of him, then continued to flail his arms and legs which resulted in him pounding Rito repeatedly.

Eventually, Rito was able to pull himself out from under Mimitree. Rito winced as he tried to walk, having taken a pretty heavy blow from Mimitree. Mimitree then got back up as well but was still pretty wobbly on his feet.

"You say we need more power, but your pokemon is looking pretty weak! Rito, finish this with Razor Leaf!" Rito quickly turned and twirled his headleaf around, launching a barrage of sharp leaves at Mimitree. Mimitree cried out sharply and finally collapsed. Ethan was quick to recall him, already having Mimitree's pokeball in his hand.

"Not bad! But it took you almost two pokemon to pull that off!" Ethan said to Crystal.

"H-hey! That pokemon of your's wasn't exactly a pushover!" Crystal shot back.

"Aw, don't worry about it! Let's keep going, alright?" Ethan then took another pokeball in his hand. "Crimson, your turn now! Let's go!" he called out, releasing releasing his fire-type pokemon Crimson from his pokeball. Flames erupted from Crimson's back as soon as he emerged from his pokeball.

"Crimson, let's finish this one before it can attack! Ember!" Crimson opened his mouth and spat a series of small fireballs at Rito. Rito cried out in pain as the fireballs struck him and pelted the ground around him, then collapsed. Crystal sighed and recalled her pokemon.

"Down to my last pokemon and he still has two left... is Ethan that far ahead of me?" she wondered aloud. She returned Rito's pokeball to her belt and then took another pokeball in her hand. If she was to beat Ethan, this last pokemon had to beat both of Ethan's pokemon.

"Yippy, it's all up to you now! Go!" she called out, releasing the dim-witted wooper from his pokeball. Yippy emerged from his pokeball wearing his usual dumb smile.

"Not bad! That one has the advantage against both my remaining pokemon!" Ethan said with a grin. "But we're not backing down! Crimson, use Smokescreen and then follow up with a Tackle attack!" The flames on Crimson's suddenly died down and were replaced with columns of thick, black smoke. The smoke filled the area around the two pokemon, blocking them completely from view.

"Yippy, roll with it!" Crystal called out, hoping that Yippy would understand the order so she could get him out of the smoke. Unfortunately, Yippy didn't really know what she meant and just ended up flopping around inside the smoke. She was still able to get him out of the smoke, however, as Crimson's Tackle was strong enough to knock him out of range.

"Umm... good enough I guess..." Crystal mumbled in bewilderment. "Okay, wait for Crimson to show himself and then use Mud Shot!" Yippy rolled back on his feet and nodded. A spittle of mud began to drip from his mouth as he prepared his attack.

"We're not burning out just yet! Crimson, Ember!" Several fireballs suddenly shot out from the cloud of smoke, striking Yippy and knocking him off his feet. The impact with the ground caused him to spit up the mud he was readying to attack with, spitting a blast of mud straight up into the air. It soon came crashing down onto Yippy, splattering everywhere.

"You should try to keep a command like that quiet so your opponent doesn't know what you're going to do," Ethan advised her. As the smoke was starting to clear now he realized he needed to take advantage of what little cover he had left and make a direct attack.

"Crimson, follow up with Quick Attack now!"

"Not so fast! Yippy, Slam!"

Yippy rolled back onto his feet, not even bothering to shake off the mud that now covered his body. He tried to swing his tail around to attack Crimson. However, Crimson moved way too fast for him. Crimson shot out of the smoke and slammed into Yippy before he could react, sending him rolling across the ground until he came to a stop at Crystal's feet. After he was laying their for a moment, unmoving, Crystal realized he was unconscious.

"Wow... your pokemon are pretty strong, Ethan..." Crystal said as she recalled Yippy. "Even having the type advantage, I couldn't beat you..."

"Yep!" Ethan grinned. "My pokemon have been getting... huh?"

Ethan was caught off guard when Crimson suddenly began to glow, his body becoming nothing more than a bright white silhouette. Crimson's body began to grow. His body grew and his snout retracted. Then, as the evolution was nearing its end, flames shot out from his body to form a fanning tail and a mohawk on his head. The glowing ceased and Crimson let out a cry.

"Oh, awesome! Crimson evolved!" Ethan said, grinning. Crimson grinned as well and let the flames on his body flare up in full.

"That's great and all, but what about Crystal?" Angela said impatiently, quickly standing up. "She obviously needs more training..."

"Right." Ethan nodded. "I think you should definitely head to Union Cave, then. It's a good training spot and there's some pretty tough wild pokemon, too."

"That's not far from here, right?" Crystal asked.

"Right! I'll show you the way," he said to them.

* * *

><p>The group stopped the pokecenter to heal their pokemon again, or at least the ones that had battled. With Crystal healing three pokemon and Ethan healing two, they were able to get their pokemon healed at the same time to speed things up. Once their pokemon were healed they immediately left the town, heading east. They were on their way toward Union Cave.<p>

Instead, they found themselves witnessing a scene at the well.

"Who the hell do you guys think you are, kidnapping all the slowpoke and cutting off their tails!" a middle-aged man yelled. The individual he was yelling at was a man in a completely black uniform, hat included. On his shirt was a red 'R'.

"Didn't you get the memo?" the uniformed man asked gruffly. "We're Team Rocket. We do whatever the hell we want. If you don't like it, that's too bad."

"Grr... Bugsy will do something about this! Just you wait!" the man growled, then turned and walked back into the city. The Rocket grunt just shrugged. Crystal, Ethan, and Angela watched as the man walked away and then looked back toward the grunt standing in front of the well.

"Well that explains where the slowpoke are..." Crystal said.

"Cutting off slowpoke tails? That's just sick!" Ethan growled, clenching a fist. "I think it's time Ethan, the Gold Trainer, taught these punks... huh?" Ethan stopped himself when he saw a certain blonde-haired girl walking up to the grunt. "Angela...? What are you?"

"Why are you guys cutting off slowpoke tails?" Angela asked him. Ethan and Crystal stared in shock at her boldness.

The grunt grinned and shrugged. "Whatever are you talking about? I'm just an innocent bystander guarding this well!"

"Now he's trying to play innocent!" Crystal and Ethan said in confusion.

Angela narrowed her eyes at him. "Now you're just being stupid. Just for that, I'm taking you all down."

The grunt laughed. "You! Take on US! You're talking madness, girl!"

"Madness?" Angela grinned. "This! Is! Umm..." Angela hesitated a moment, trying to think of what to end her outburst with. In the end, she just kicked the grunt in the stomach. The grunt stumbled back, arms flailing as he neared the edge of the well, then finally lost his balance and fell in.

"..." The grunt's cry echoed throughout the well until it was eventually silenced by a loud thud. After the grunt had fallen in, Angela went in as well. She, however, was climbing down courtesy of a ladder that ran the entire height of the well.

"That seemed kinda cruel... and yet... I think I kinda wanted to do the same." Ethan muttered while rubbing his head.

"That's not nice! He could be dead now, you know!" Crystal chided him. "And who knows what she might do to the rest of the grunts! Sure, they might be criminals, but they have families too you know!"

"Right, right... I guess someone should keep an eye on her, huh?" Ethan said. "And I still want to kick their asses anyway. So why don't I go into the well with Angela while you keep going to Union Cave?"

Crystal nodded in agreement. "Right. Your pokemon would be better for this, but you better hurry up and get caught up with her!"

Ethan grinned and took out his orange-tinted shades. "Don't worry about a thing! The Gold Trainer is on the job!" He put his shades on and gave Crystal a thumbs up. "Good luck with your training! By the time you're done, these slowpoke will be as good as rescued!" Ethan then took off, heading for the well.

Crystal sighed. "This got complicated all of a sudden..." She then took a quick look around. "Just as long as Silver doesn't pop out of nowhere, I'll be fine." As soon as she was convinced she was alone, Crystal continued on her way toward Union Cave.

* * *

><p>When Ethan reached the bottom of the ladder, he found the grunt from earlier lying at the bottom on his back. He was largely unmoving, but groaning in pain.<p>

"Heh... seems like you survived afterall. Guess you're pretty hardy!" Ethan said to the grunt with a grin.

"H-h... help..."

"Help Angela kick your buddies asses? Don't mind if I do!" Ethan said, then took off running further into the cave.

The Slowpoke Well was fairly odd for a well. While most wells would be filled with water for people to draw from, this particular well was nothing more than a cave. There were certainly pools of water nearby, but not easily reachable from the well opening. While the well had been used as a more typical well in the distant past, it had since become home to wild slowpoke.

Ethan didn't get far in that cave before catching up with Angela. He had arrived just in the nick of time, before the actual fighting had start. Angela was facing two grunts, a man and a woman, and all three trainers had released all their pokemon. Angela had Bitey, Gorey, and Slicey facing down a trio of zubats, a rattata, and an ekans.

"It's over, kid! You're outnumbered five to three!" the male grunt said. "Now just buzz off and mind your own business!"

"Eh? I'm really not afraid of your pokemon..." Angela said boredly.

"Now that's no reason to be greedy, Angela!" Ethan said as he finally caught up to her, taking up a spot beside her. "There's two of them, so it's only fair that I get to help out, right?" he said, flashing Angela a grin.

"Whatever," Angela replied in annoyance. "Where's Crystal?"

"She's gone off ahead to train in Union Cave," Ethan said to her. "Don't worry about her, though. Besides, this shouldn't take more than a few seconds!"

"HEY! Quit ignoring us!" the female grunt said indignantly.

"Playtime's over, kids! All pokemon, ATTACK!" the male grunt called out. All five of their pokemon began to move forward. "Bite attacks all around!"

"I can command my own pokemon, you know!" the female grunt snapped at him, though she didn't issue any commands herself.

"Guess it doesn't matter which team it is, a grunt's a grunt!" Angela said. "Bitey, Gorey, Slicey, Triple Whirlpool!"

All three of Angela's pokemon shot forward with water trailing behind them. As they reached Team Rocket's cluster of pokemon they began to move in a circle to create a large, towering wall of water around them. The pokemon trapped within looked around in confusion and then tried to bite at Angela's pokemon, which were swimming along with the whirlpool, but were too slow and were forcefully thrown back when they struck the water instead.

"Interesting!" Ethan said with a grin as he took a pair of pokeballs from his belt. "But like I said, share the fun! Mimitree, Sparx, come on out!" The pokeballs in Ethan's hands opened, releasing Mimitree and Sparx from their pokeballs. "Angela, quick! Tell your pokemon to get out of the way!"

Angela took a moment to look at Ethan's pokemon and assess the situation. "...Fine, but you better not screw up!" she said reluctantly. "Bitey, Gorey, Slicey, clear out now!" she called out to her pokemon. The three of them quickly shot out of the whirlpool in different directions, leaving the wall of water to collapse around the pokemon trapped within.

"Sparx, Thundershock! Mimitree, Mimic it! Blast them all with a jolt of electricity while they're good and wet!" Sparx nodded and grinned, seemingly mimicking his rather smug trainer as he fired a blast of electricity at Team Rocket's pokemon. Mimitree followed suit, wearing that same grin and mimicking Sparx's attack to fire another blast of electricity at them.

The blasts of electricity struck Team Rocket's pokemon just as the water was collapsing around them, hitting all five of them simultaneously with a blast of electricity. All five pokemon screeched in pain as the electricity coursed through their bodies, then fell silent.

"Wh-what!" the male grunt cried out in disbelief.

"See! You should have let me command them!" the female grunt chided him.

"What's going on here?" a gruff, mean-sounding voice said. Another grunt, this one with white, bloodstained gloves and cyan-colored hair approached the group. He first looked at the grunts, then at their fallen pokemon, and finally at Angela, Ethan, and their pokemon. Angela's three pokemon had since gathered in front of her again.

"Tch... kids..." the newcomer muttered. "It doesn't matter whee we go, there's always someone that doesn't agree with us..."

"That might have something to do with your illegal means of obtaining cash," Ethan pointed out. "Seriously, did you expect people to actually agree with you when you're kidnapping slowpoke and cutting off their tails!"

"Hmph. I don't really care whether you agree with us or not, personally," the 'grunt' replied. "The name's Proton, and I've got a reputation as being the cruelest and scariest guy in Team Rocket. I strongly advise you not to interfere in Team Rocket's business."

"Yeah, don't interfere!" the male grunt added, earning him a sharp glare from Proton that quickly shut him up.

"Scariest or not, Angela and I still have three strong pokemon each while you clearly only have two," Ethan said, pointing to the two pokeballs attached to Proton's belt. "So just what do you think you're going to do now?"

"Alright, here's the deal, kiddies..." Proton began to say, then drew a single pokeball from his belt. He pressed the button and released a round, purple pokemon with a poison symbol on its body. "We're leaving. Don't try to stop us and my pokemon here won't blow us to kingdom come."

"Can he actually do that?" Angela asked Ethan.

"Selfdestruct and Explosion ARE techniques a koffing can learn," Ethan replied, glaring at Proton from behind his orange shades. "Better take him seriously and let him pass."

"An excellent decision," Proton said with a smirk. "You two grunts there, we're leaving. Now."

"Hey, we have names you..." the female grunt began to say, only to be cut off by Proton.

"I don't give a crap what your names are. You could be Cunt and Ass for all I care," Proton snapped. "We're leaving. NOW."

The two Rocket grunts swallowed nervously and quietly recalled their pokemon. Proton then moved past them and the two followed behind him and his koffing, not even glancing at the two trainers as they passed by. Proton and Ethan briefly locked eyes as they passed by each other.

When he finally reached the ladder, Proton stopped and looked down at their fallen comrade.

"You have two options, grunt. Either stay here and get caught, or shrug it off like a man, get up, and follow us out," Proton said tersely.

"D-damn it..." the grunt muttered weakly. Using the nearby ladder as support, he managed to pull himself onto his feet. The other two grunts helped him along as he made his way up the ladder. Once the three grunts were gone, Proton turned to face the trainers again.

"This was only a small operation, so don't get any ideas," he explained to them. A wicked grin then formed on his face. "Just wait until you see what Team Rocket has in store!" Proton then turned and made his way up the ladder, leaving the two grunts behind.

"I can't believe we just let them get away like that!" Angela said indignantly.

"Don't worry about them, they'll get what's coming to them," Ethan assured her, then ran off further into the face. After passing over a narrow plateau, he found a fairly large group of slowpoke. Many of whom had their tails cut off, though none of them looked particularly concerned about it. "Looks like these guys will be alright... hmm?"

Ethan jumped down from the plateau and then moved closer to one of the slowpoke, one that was missing its tail. The slowpoke had something around its neck. When he bent down to get a closer look, he realized it was a nametag. "Looks like this slowpoke belongs to someone..."

"What about it, then?" Angela asked him.

"I'll see to it that this slowpoke is returned to its trainer," Ethan said as he turned around to face her, then finally lifted his shades from his eyes. "You go catch up to Crystal and help her train. I'll finish things up here."

Angela shrugged. "Fine. This is the boring part anyway," she mumbled, then took a pokeball in her hand. "Let's go, everyone. We're done here," she said. She then quickly recalled each of her pokemon and made her way out of the well, leaving Ethan alone to take care of the slowpoke.

"That Proton guy..." he muttered to himself. "I don't think I like him at all."

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: I'm not sure whether Heart GoldSoul Silver made Team Rocket less serious or more serious. I think they somehow managed both at the same time. On one hand, some of the characters seem a bit more serious. On the other hand, there's the grunt in front of the well who can't seem decide whether he wants to be scary or try to cover up Team Rocket's activities. On top of that, there's the "tree" in Mahogany...

And, yeah, as noted, Crystal needs to get more serious. She's starting to lag behind the boys.


	8. Chapter 8: Crystal's Triumph

**Chapter 8**

**Crystal's Triumph**

Crystal looked around the darkened, seemingly empty cavern she now stood in and pondered her next move.

"Okay... now how am I supposed to train my pokemon here?" she wondered aloud. "I guess I could have them throw their strongest attacks at the rocks?"

After thinking it over for a moment, Crystal took a pokeball in each hand and started releasing her pokemon two by two. Stan, Rito, Hooty, Smoochya, Yippy, and Mary all appeared before her. The pokemon looked around in confusion, wondering where they were and why they had all been released from their pokeballs.

"Everyone, we're here for training today," Crystal announced. "We've been running into some strong trainers so we need to pick up our game! That's why we're here, to do a bit of training. To start off, we'll use your strongest attacks on..." Crystal looked around again and spotted a large stalagmite nearby. "On that stalagmite."

Her pokemon all nodded. Crystal gestured toward one wall of the cave and all her pokemon lined up, save for Yippy who needed to be prompted by Stan first. Once they were lined up they turned to face the stalagmite in question. They then waited for Crystal to give them commands.

"Stan, you first. Attack that rock with Stomp!" Stan charged forward at Crystal's command and raised up on his hind legs as he neared the rock. The rock cracked slightly when the hooves of his front legs struck it. Stan hopped back from the rock after and stopped to admire his handiwork, then slowly trotted back to the wall the rest of her pokemon were.

_Stan's easily my strongest pokemon, but he could still a better variety of attacks I think,_ Crystal thought to herself as she observed the effects of Stan's attack. _The rest of my pokemon will probably start to catch up when they evolve, but for now I think Stan is easily ahead of them. His attacks are Tackle and Stomp, though. Stomp is easier to use on shorter pokemon or pokemon he's knocked over, and Tackle is good on a charge, but neither have much impact on something like a rock-type pokemon..._

"Okay then, your turn now, Hooty," Crystal said, nodding to her hoothoot. "I think you learned a new attack recently, so let's try using Uproar on that rock!"

Hooty quickly flew over toward the stalagmite and hovered a few feet from it. With how quickly she moved, it almost seemed like she was eager to use the attack. She opened her beak and took in a deep breath, then started yelling and blasting the rock with a furious blast of sound.

"-WHAT THE HELL IS THE BIG IDEA DRAGGING ME OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY FOR THESE STUPID BATTLES AND THIS STUPID TRAINING! I'M A NOCTURNAL POKEMON, DAMN IT! NOCTURNAL! WHAT PART OF THAT DOESN'T THIS BLUE-HAIRED NITWIT NOT UNDERSTAND!-"

"-She seems to have a lot of built up rage,-" Stan noted quietly.

"-Loud!-" Yippy said in agreement.

The rock seemed to suffer quite a bit under the sound blasts. The cracks formed by Stan's attack grew by quite a bit by the time Hooty was finished. Hooty dropped to the ground to catch her breath after making the attack, then slowly hobbled back over to the wall to rest.

"That was actually pretty impressive..." Crystal noted, blinking in disbelief. "Come to think of it, I think hoothoots are better with special attacks than physical. On the other hand, an uproar like that is kinda counter-productive to keeping the enemy pokemon asleep... hmm..." Crystal pondered this for a moment and shrugged.

"I'll think of something I guess," she said. "Alright, you're up next then, Smoochya. Use Confusion!"

Smoochya focused on the stalagmite and her eyes flashed. A psychic force struck the rock, cracking the front of it and sending a few small chunks flying away as if a hammer had struck it. Smoochya giggled and clapped her hands together, happy with the damage she had managed to inflict on it.

"Not bad. I think our attacks are taking quite a toll on that rock..." Crystal noted. "Okay, Yippy, your turn. In your case, I think we'll go with Slam." Upon Crystal's command, Yippy immediately began to charge toward the rock while zigzagging slightly.

_Yippy knows a good water and ground-type attacks, but surprisingly he's not that good at using mud or water-based attacks,_ Crystal thought as Yippy was moving to make his attack. _He's actually a better physical attacker, but mud attacks can still be used to cause problems for the opposing pokemon in other ways now that I think of it._

Yippy hopped into the air as he neared the rock, then slammed his tail into the top of it. The rock shuddered with the impact and many of the existing cracks deepened. Yippy's own attack against the rock bounced him back as well. He hit the ground on his head and then fell into a face-down position. He remained like that, unmoving.

"Umm, Yippy, that was good but you can rejoin the others now..." Crystal said to him. Yippy finally got up when Crystal spoke to him and then looked around. When he spotted the other pokemon he hopped up excitedly and ran over to them to take his place by the wall again.

Yippy needs work in other areas more than he does attacking, Crystal thought while rubbing her forehead. She took a deep breath and then lowered her hand. "Alright, your turn now Mary. Attack with Thundershock."

Mary's wool coat produced sparks as electricity was generated within it. Small bolts of electricity then fired out in all directions from Mary and converged on the rock. When the bolts of electricity struck it, the rock exploded into a shower of dust and debris. Only a small stump of the stalagmite remained. With all the attacks it had endured, the energy from the Thundshock was just too much for it to take.

"Umm... did not expect that..." Crystal said, blinking in disbelief. She looked toward her pokemon, who did not seem at all put off by the explosion. Mary even looked rather pleased with herself. "Right... umm... guess that just leaves Rito then. But we'll have to find a new target for you."

"-Hmph.-" Rito flicked his headleaf back. "-Whatever. Just make it quick. The air in this cave is so dusty...-"

Crystal looked around a bit and walked a bit further into the cave. Her pokemon followed behind. It didn't take her long to find what she was looking for. In fact, she found several. Seemingly draped over a small hill in the cavern was a line of fairly large boulders. Crystal scanned the line, picked out a good looking boulder, then turned to Rito and pointed at it.

"Okay, Rito, attack that boulder! Use Razor Leaf!"

"-As you wish,-" Rito replied, flicking his headlead back again. He then moved ahead of the pack of pokemon, taking position to attack with a prideful stance. Stan and Hooty were glaring at him as if they wanted to hit him.

_Based on the damage everyone else was able to do, Rito should at least be able to put a few good cuts in that rock with Razor Leaf,_ Crystal thought to herself. She was starting to get a much better idea now of what her pokemon were capable of from observing their attacks.

Rito twirled his headleaf around, launching a barrage of leaves at the boulder Crystal had pointed to. The leaves slashed across the boulder as well as the adjacent boulders. To Crystal's surprise, there didn't seem to be any immediate damage to the rocks. The leaves left only the most minor of scratches as they sliced across the surface of the boulders.

_Okay... so either Rito is weaker than the rest of my pokemon, or these are very unusually tough boulders._ Crystal thought. _But that kind of toughness... it's almost like those boulders are part of a... a..._

A deep, gravelly growl could be heard from nearby. Crystal slowly turned her head toward the sound. Just beyond the top of the hill, several of the boulders could now be seen raised up into the air. At the end of the the line of boulders was a more triangular-shaped boulder with a sort of a fin on top. And a pair of eyes that were glaring back at Crystal and her pokemon.

"An onix... why didn't I notice that sooner?" Crystal wondered aloud, realizing now that the line of boulders was more than a little suspect.

The wild onix let out a roar and went on the attack, starting with Rito. Onix curled its massive tail around, moving it to surround Rito. The tail then squeezed in and closed around him. Rito cried out in shock when the onix's tail grabbed him and hoisted him in the air, then began squeezing tightly. Rito cried out in pain.

"Well, here's our training opponent then!" Crystal said to her pokemon. "Rito, from where you are you should be able to hit it with Poison Powder!"

Rito grimaced and did his best to whirl his headleaf around. A purple cloud of poison began to spread out and fell upon the onix's rocky body, seeping in between the cracks. The onix let out a low growl and winced, feeling the poison seeping into its body. Though the onix's rocky hide was nearly impenetrable to damage and did a good job at keeping poison from getting to it, the joints where the rocks forming its body connected were much less protected.

"Good! Now, Smoochya, use Confusion and aim for its face!"

Smoochya hopped from side to side as she bounded toward the onix's head, having to first close the gap due to the length of the onix's body. With one final hop, her eyes flashed and the onix's head snapped back slightly as a psychic force struck it. It wasn't enough to force the onix to release Rito, but it did distract it temporarily.

"Okay, now let's slow it down with a Cotton Spore! Mary, that's your cue!"

Shaking her thick, wool coat Mary released a cloud of cotton-like spores in the direction of the onix's head. The spores floated over to the onix and attached themselves to the massive rock snake's body, weighing it down and. Some of the spores managed to cling to the insides of its joints as well, making it harder for it to move and tickling it slightly.

"Hooty, your turn now! Let's take advantage of this distraction and get in close to put it to sleep with Hypnosis!"

Onix turned to the group of pokemon, utterly infuriated at this point, and let out a menacing roar. The blast of sound sent Hooty, who was trying to get close for her own attack now, spiralling back through the air. She quickly shook it off and fluttered in closer, positioning herself almost directly between the massive pokemon's eyes.

"-You're getting sleepy, very sleepy... look, just catch a few z's for the sake of someone who wishes they were,-" Hooty said tiredly. She then began releasing hypnotic waves at the onix while her eyes suddenly began to swirl around, becoming like black and white spirals. The onix felt its eyelids, which were already made of rock, growing heavy as drowsiness set in. Within seconds it fell fast asleep and its massive body collapsed to the cave floor.

Crystal smiled inwardly. Her makeshift plan seemed to be working. All that remained was to free Rito from the sleeping onix's grip, then they could defeat it.

"Yippy, Slam! Stan, Tackle! Hit the part of onix's tail that's holding Rito!" Crystal called out.

Stan and Yippy charged forward, with Stan leading the charge. Stan smashed head-first into Onix's body. The attack seemingly got more of a reaction from Rito, who yelped in pain with the impact against the appendage holding him in place. But Rito could feel that the onix's grip on him had loosened slightly.

Yippy finally hobbled up to the onix while Stan was backing away. Yippy leapt into the air and landed on Stan's back, then jumped again to get up even higher. Yippy then spun around as the gap between him and the onix's tail closed, whipping his tail around to slam into it hard. Again Rito was the only one to show a noticeable reaction, merely wincing this time but then suddenly falling free of the onix's grip. Once Rito was free all six pokemon quickly huddled together.

"Okay everyone, let's get ready to hit that onix with your most powerful attacks on my mark!" All of Crystal's pokemon, save for Yippy, nodded and assumed fighting stances.

It was at that point that the onix finally woke up. It slowly opened its eyes and immediately spotted the group of pokemon. The onix let out a low growl as it surveyed the group. The pokemon carefully weighed its options. Small as Crystal's pokemon were, relative to it at least, the sight of all her pokemon standing poised to attack was at least a little intimidating. As a result, the onix decided it best not to continue attacking and turned to flee deeper into the caves.

"Guess it didn't want to fight afterall..." Crystal noted, shrugging to herself.

"Aww! I wanted to see you kick that onix's ass and capture it!" Angela said disappointedly. In all the commotion, neither Crystal nor her pokemon noticed Angela's arrival.

"You... what?" Crystal said in confusion, then shook her head. "Nevermind... anyway, I don't even have any pokeballs so I couldn't capture it anyway. And an onix seems like it'd be an awkward pokemon to use..."

Angela shrugged and rested her hands behind her head. "I don't know, I wouldn't mind having a big pokemon like that."

I'm sure you wouldn't! Crystal thought. "What happened with Team Rocket, anyway?"

"We stopped them but they got away," Angela said to her. "Anyway, are you still training here?"

Crystal thought for a moment and then shook her head. "No, I think driving off that onix is good enough for now. Maybe I'll just try challenging the gym leader..."

"That's boring..." Angela muttered, then shrugged. "Oh well. If you ever want to train against my pokemon instead, just let me know."

_Even though it's Angela, that might not be a bad idea,_ Crystal thought to herself. _Battling a trainer would definitely be better training for my pokemon. Too bad Angela only has three, though._

* * *

><p>Crystal quickly recalled her pokemon and left the cave with Angela. They headed back to Azalea Town and went straight into the pokemon center to restore Crystal's pokemon to full strength. Once Crystal's pokemon were healed the girls headed straight for the gym, where a familiar face was waiting for them in front of the doors.<p>

"Yo! Crystal!" a glasses-wearing young man greeted them. "Figured you'd be challenging the gym leader!"

"Ethan? What are you doing here?" Crystal asked him.

"Just giving you a heads up, this guy uses bug pokemon and is pretty damn good with them!" Ethan said to her. After a moment's consideration he added, "Also, he totally IS a guy and doesn't like being confused for a girl..."

"Umm... noted I guess?" Crystal said in confusion. "I'm feeling pretty confident right now, though."

"Great!" Ethan gave her a thumbs up. "Then go get that badge! I'm rootin' for ya!" Ethan then stepped aside so Crystal could enter the gym. Crystal stepped through the doors but Angela didn't move.

"Aren't you going in?" Ethan asked her. Crystal, now realizing Angela had stopped, turned around to see what was going on.

"There's something I have to take care of actually, so I'll catch up with you later, Crystal!" Angela then quickly ran off, heading toward the eastern edge of town.

"She didn't stick around long..." Crystal commented.

"Her loss," Ethan said. the two of them then went inside the gym.

The inside of the gym was quite unique so far as gyms went. The field was made of dirt and grass, but there were also several trees positioned about the gym's battlefield. The trees looked like they were the same kind of trees found in Ilex Forest. They were fairly tall and sturdy looking, reaching nearly to the roof of the gym. The roof looked like it could open, though it was currently closed.

On the other end of the gym stood a purple haired, teenaged boy carrying a butterfly net. Crystal couldn't help noticing that he did, indeed, seem a bit androdgynous.

"Welcome to the Azalea Town gym," the purple-haired boy greeted Crystal. "My name is Bugsy. I'm the authority on bug pokemon. Someday my research will make me... oh, it's you..." Bugsy's expression turned into a glare when he noticed Ethan was with her.

"Hey, man, I said I was sorry!" Ethan said in his defense. Bugsy let out a sigh.

"Nevermind him then... you here for a gym battle?" he asked Crystal. Crystal nodded. "Very well. We will use three pokemon each." Bugsy then took a pokeball from his belt and held it out. "Choose your first pokemon!"

Crystal walked up to the edge of the battlefield and took a pokeball from her belt. "Okay! Let's do this!" Crystal said. "Hooty, I choose you!"

"Metapod, I choose you!"

Crystal and Bugsy sent out their first pokemon, Crystal sending out the owl pokemon Hooty and Bugsy sending out a pokemon that didn't even look like it could fight. Bugsy's pokemon was a metapod. An immobile, middle stage cocoon evolution.

_This one will be easy,_ Crystal thought, rolling her eyes. "Hooty, attack with Peck." Hooty flapped his tiny wings and took off, skimming low across the grassy battlefield toward Bugsy's Metapod.

"You better not be underestimating my Metapod! It has a trick up it's sleeve!" Bugsy said to Crystal. "Metapod, swinging String Shot!"

Just before Hooty was going to Peck it, Metapod suddenly shot a long thread of string toward a nearby tree. The string pulled Metapod out of Hooty's line of attack. Hooty came to a stop when she realized she had missed, then looked around in confusion wondering how it happened.

"What the!" Crystal shouted in confusion. "Metapod can do that!"

"This one can!" Bugsy replied. "And it can do more than that! Watch!"

Metapod fired out another line of string at a tree on the right side of the battlefield, pulling itself toward the second tree now. While still in transit, Metapod then released the string and fired another one at a tree past Hooty. This one allowed it to catch Hooty off guard, smacking her aside as it moved past. It then swung around that tree and fired another string past Hooty to hit her again.

"That strategy is ridiculous..." Crystal muttered, eyes narrowing in annoyance. As Metapod swung around another tree, coming back around to attack again, an idea struck Crystal. "Hooty, Uproar!"

As Metapod was swinging around toward her again, Hooty turned to face it and took in a deep breath.

"-YOU THINK YOU'RE CLEVER! YOU REALLY THINK YOU'RE CLEVER WITH THAT ATTACK! YOU'RE NOT! YOU'RE ANNOYING, DAMN IT! YOU'RE ANNOYING WITH THE STRING AND THE SWINGING AND THE TACKLING AND GO AWAY ALREADY!-"

The sudden blast of sound sent Metapod rocketing back and slammed it into the same tree it had been using to swing around and hit Hooty. Metapod smashed into the tree hard and was knocked out with the impact. Its unconscious form clattered to the ground and rolled onto its side.

"Hmm... so you were able to counter my Metapod's String Shot technique. Not bad," Bugsy said as he recalled his fallen pokemon. "But don't feel too confident just yet! My bugs have plenty of tricks up their sleeves!" Bugsy then took another pokeball from his belt, returning the one that contained his Metapod.

"Beedrill, your turn now! Go!" The pokeball in Bugsy's hand opened, releasing a very mean-looking bug pokemon. The pokemon had spear-tips for hands and eyes that appeared to be devoid of expression. The Beedrill's wings flapped rapidly and noisily, keeping it hovering low to the ground.

"Heh. That one evolved while battling my pokemon," Ethan said to himself, grinning.

"Hooty, that's enough for now!" Crystal said as she recalled Hooty. Against this pokemon, she wanted a bit more power. To her a beedrill seemed like a pretty tough opponent for a bug pokemon, so she swapped Hooty's pokeball for one of her stronger pokemon.

"Stan, this one's your's! Go!" Crystal called out, releasing Stan the stantler from his pokeball. Stan snorted and dragged a hoof across the ground in defiance of the 'intimidating' bug pokemon before him.

"Let's see how your stantler handles THIS strategy! Beedrill, use U-Turn!" Beedrill flew toward Stan at high speed and slashed across one side of his body as it moved past, then suddenly pulled a U-Turn and struck the opposite side of Stan's body as it flew back toward Bugsy. When it reached Bugsy, he had a pokeball waiting and recalled his Beedrill.

"Wait! I thought gym leaders weren't allowed to swap pokemon?" Crystal asked.

"U-Turn is an exception to that rule!" Bugsy replied, then took another pokeball in his hand. "Now go and continue the chain, Scyther!" Bugsy held out the pokeball and released his final pokemon early. A green, mantis-like pokemon with scythe-like blades on its arms appeared from the pokeball.

"So we're battling this pokemon then? Fine by me!" Crystal said. "Stan, attack with Tackle!"

"Scyther, U-Turn!" Stan began to run toward Scyther, only for the Scyther to suddenly move past him in a blur of movement and strike him in the side as Beedrill had done before. Stan grunted in pain and stumbled in his charge, coming to a stop. Scyther then pulled a quick U-Turn to come back around and slash across Stan's other side and knock him off his feet this time. Scyther then kept going back to Bugsy, who was waiting with a pokeball to recall Scyther.

"Okay... this is getting kinda repetitive..." Crystal muttered in annoyance. She looked at Bugsy, who was taking Beedrill's pokeball in his hand again, and then at Stan as she considered her options. Stan was starting rolling onto his feet to get back up, but then Crystal had another idea.

"Stan, stay down," Crystal said quietly. Stan did as Crystal told and stayed low to the ground.

"If your pokemon won't move, then we'll be finishing this now!" Bugsy declared as he released Beedrill from its pokeball again. "Beedrill, finish her pokemon now with Poison Sting!"

"Not so fast!" Crystal shouted back. "Stan, Hypnosis!"

Beedrill moved toward Stan and raised one of its spear-like forelimbs back, preparing to strike. Just as it closed the gap, though, it suddenly froze as its eyes met with Stan's antlers. The antlers, which almost looked like eyes themselves, were releasing hypnotic psychic waves. The hypnotic waves took their effect on Beedrill and the pokemon collapsed before Stan, leaving it vulnerable to attack as it was now fast asleep even though its expression remained unchanged.

"Beedrill! No!" Bugsy cried out in dismay.

"Now use Tackle!" Crystal called out to Stan. Stan quickly got up and took a few steps back, then rammed into Beedrill hard to knock it flat against the ground. Beedrill still showed no signs of movement, still fast asleep.

"Okay, let's finish this with Stomp!" Crystal then commanded. Stan took a few steps to close the gap between himself and Beedrill. He then rose up on his hind legs and slammed his forelegs into Beedrill's abdomen. The Beedrill let out a pained, high-pitched shriek as it suddenly woke up from the impact and then fell silent.

"You've defeated my U-Turn strategy as well! Impressive!" Bugsy said, though he looked more annoyed than impressed. "Then it comes down to this! My strongest and fastest bug pokemon!" Bugsy reached down to his belt and took his final pokeball in hand. "Scyther, it's all up to you now! Go!"

"Stan, that's enough for now! Return!" Crystal called out, recalling her pokemon while wearing a smirk on her face. For Bugsy's final pokemon, she already had a plan in mind. She reached for another pokeball from her belt to send out her final pokemon.

"Mary, I choose you!" Crystal pointed the pokeball toward the battlefield and released her final pokemon, Mary the mareep. Mary let out a happy bleet as she appeared, not looking the least bit intimidated by the blade-wielding pokemon before her.

"Scyther, hit it hard with a U-Turn!"

"Mary, use Cotton Spore!"

Mary shook her wool coat, releasing a cloud of cotton-like spores into the air. Scyther flew straight into this cloud of spores as it slashed by one side of Mary, causing her to cry out in pain. The Scyther's movements were noticeably slowed as it turned around and slashed across Mary's other side in passing. This time, instead of being recalled, Scyther simply came to a stop.

"Good job! Now, use Thunder Wave!" Mary shook off Scyther's attack and then quickly released a pulse of static electricity from her wool. The static electricity caused Scyther to shudder and nearly collapse as it struck it and paralyzed its muscles.

"No! She's slowing us down!" Bugsy realized in dismay. "Scyther, Quick Attack! We can't lose like this!" Scyther quickly turned around and shot forward in a blur of movement, slamming into Mary. Mary cried out in pain as she was knocked back, but Scyther was the one to collapse as the paralysis took over.

"Mary, Thundershock!" Crystal called out excitedly, feeling the battle coming to a close. Mary fired a blast of electricity at Scyther from only a few feet away. Scyther cried out in pain as several small bolts of electricity struck it and knocked it onto its back. It was a harsh blow, but Scyther was already trying weakly to get back on its feet.

"One more time, Mary! Thundershock!" Mary fired another blast of electricity at Scyther, hitting it while it was down. Scyther was blasted back into the ground by the electricity, getting knocked out immediately. Bugsy let out a sigh as he recalled his pokemon

"Twice in one day... maybe I need to train a bit..." Bugsy muttered to himself, then reached into his pocked to take out a TM disc and badge. He then walked across the battlefield and handed them to Crystal.

"Here. You deserve these," he said as he handed the items to Crystal, then shot Ethan a glare. "Unlike the last challenger." Bugsy then quickly turned and headed back across the field.

Crystal blinked in confusion and then turned to Ethan. "What happened between you two?"

"Ah... well..." Ethan rubbed the back of his head and grinned sheepishly. "Remember what I said about Bugsy hating being confused for a girl?"

"What about it?"

"Let's just leave it at that," Ethan said to her. "Anyway! Congratulations on getting your second badge!"

"Thanks," Crystal replied, smiling. She looked down at the badge in her hand. "This one was pretty easy though once I figured out how to deal with Bugsy's strategies..."

"Heh, I just kinda went brute force..." Ethan admitted.

"Well, we should probably go back to the pokemon center now," Crystal said. "I'm sure Angela will turn up there." Ethan nodded in agreement and the two of them turned and left the gym.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: Late with this one. I blame my new work schedule. Said schedule seemed like a good one when I agreed to work it, but I've been having second thoughts lately. Though, if nothing else, I have time to finish this up before work at least.<p>

Any guesses for what Angela was doing while Crystal challenged the gym?


	9. Chapter 9: The Spiky Earred Pichu

**Chapter 9**

**The Spiky-Earred Pichu**

"Where did you run off to before?" Crystal asked Angela, now that everyone was back at the pokemon center. Angela flashed a grin and held up a pokeball. It was an ordinary pokemon, unlike what she caught Slicey in.

"I caught that onix you fought before!" Angela said cheerfully.

"You sound pretty happy about catching a pokemon someone else weakened for you," Ethan pointed out, eyes glaring at her slightly from behind his orange shades.

"I'm surprised you would go out of your way to catch a pokemon like that at all since it's not a water-type pokemon," Crystal said.

"I didn't catch it to use it!" Angela replied. "I'm going to take it to the GTS in Goldenrod and trade it for something!"

"That seems kinda cruel, catching a pokemon just to trade it. That onix probably won't be too happy about it..."

Angela shrugged. "Won't be my problem!" she said. "Besides, it's not like he's THAT aggressive. He backed down when you were fighting him, Crystal."

"Somehow I don't think there's any point trying to argue with her," Ethan said to Crystal. "If nothing else I suppose you could say whoever is trading a pokemon for an onix will definitely take care of it."

"I guess you're right," Crystal said, letting out a sigh. In spite of what Ethan said, Angela's actions were still bothering her. It didn't help that she was responsible for both weakening the onix Angela caught as well as being the reason she knew where to find it in the first place.

"By the way, no one's seen Silver here at all, have they?" Angela asked, changing the subject.

"I have a feeling that slippery guy will only be found if he wants to be found," Ethan said. "He knows we're here, no doubt, and he's avoiding us. He knows he can't take us on at this point. Even if he's strong, we've got twelve pokemon between us."

"Thirteen if you count onix!" Angela added, holding up the pokeball again. Neither Ethan nor Crystal said a word.

"So I guess now we should head back to Goldenrod so we can get there before it gets dark," Crystal eventually said. Angela pouted and lowered the onix's pokeball.

Ethan shrugged. "What's the hurry? Even if we don't make it, we can just camp on the route outside Goldenrod! Or in Ilex Forest if we have to!"

"Umm... well..." Crystal twiddled her fingers together. "Well even though I don't like camping... maybe you could teach me a thing or two, Ethan? I mean, you must know a lot about it, right?"

"Of course!" Ethan replied with a grin. He gave Crystal a thumbs up. "Don't you worry, Crys! I'll show you the ropes!"

"Hmm..." Angela narrowed her eyes at Crystal in suspicion. "I think Crystal has different kind of ropes in mind..."

"WHAT KIND OF A JOKE IS THAT!" Crystal shrieked and flailed her arms about. The rest of the trainers and the pokecenter staff all turned and stared at her. Ethan looked between the two in confusion, the joke having gone over his head.

Angela shrugged. "Anyway, what are we going to do in Azalea if we're not leaving yet?"

"Oh! Well, I was just thinking we could stop by this place at the edge of town," Ethan said. "There's this old guy there, I think his name's Kurt. One of the slowpoke belonged to his daughter and he said he'd be willing to make pokeballs for us!"

"Pokeballs?" Crystal blinked in confusion. "You mean, like, custom pokeballs? Made from apricorns? Come to think of it, I think that was one of the questions I answered for that quiz contest in Goldenrod..."

"Sounds boring..." Angela mumbled.

"You know, he could probably make pokeballs designed to better catch water-type pokemon," Ethan pointed out. Angela just shrugged and then reached into her backpack to take out a net ball.

"I already have something like that," she said. "Works way better than an ultra ball on any water or bug-type pokemon."

Ethan shrugged and then turned to Crystal. "What about you?"

"I don't really plan on catching many pokemon," Crystal replied, shaking her head.

"Geez... you two are no fun..." Ethan muttered, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, might as well just head for Goldenrod then. I think it'll be getting dark soon..."

"Hmm. I bet Ilex Forest will be interesting at night~" Angela said with a quiet giggle. Her tone made Crystal swallow nervously, but Ethan was just confused.

The two girls and Ethan then finally left the pokemon center and made their way toward Ilex Forest. As they made their way through the town, they didn't notice the young boy tailing them from the shadows...

* * *

><p>"Ah, geez! It's already dark in here!" Ethan said in disbelief once he and the girls stepped out of the gatehouse. The sky was already beginning to darken slightly, but inside the forest it was already getting hard to see in some places. The tall trees cast their shadows throughout the forest and their canopy of leaves blotted out much of the light.<p>

"Maybe a pokemon could like the way for us?" Crystal suggested.

"Good idea!" Ethan said, then quickly grabbed a pokeball from her belt. "Alright, Sparx, come on out! We need your help on this one!" he said as he pressed the button on the pokeball. The pokeball opened and a red beam shot out, illuminating the ground briefly before materializing into the form of a pichu.

"Sparx? But won't producing electricity for so long hurt him?" Crystal asked, recalling that pichu couldn't control their charge very well and often hurt themselves with their own electricity.

"Don't worry about it!" Ethan replied with his usual confident grin. "Sparx here has been learning to control his electricity better, so maintaining a small charge just to produce a bit of light won't bother him at all. Right, Sparx!"

"-Right!-" Sparx replied with an enthusiastic nod. Putting his tiny hands together he focused his power and his cheeks began producing small sparks. It wasn't much, and the pichu showed no signs of pain from the charge, but it was still enough to provide the trainers with some light.

"See? Sparx's got us covered," Ethan said to the girls.

"I guess you're right..." Crystal said. Angela, however, didn't look too impressed.

"It's like we're using a nightlight..." she muttered.

"Aw, you complain too much," Ethan said to her, then turned to his pokemon again. "Alright, Sparx, lead the... huh?" Ethan found his pokemon staring off into the distance. Ethan followed the direction of his gaze and could just barely make out a small shadow hiding further head of them. After a moment, the shadow suddenly disappeared as the creature darted off.

"-Hey! Wait!-" Sparx called out before running off after the mysterious creature.

"Sparx! Get back here!" Ethan called out after his pokemon, then took off running as well. The girls looked at each other and then took off after him, not wanting to be left behind.

The trainers had more than their fair share of trouble trying to follow the speedy pichu, only gaining any ground on it when it reached a sudden turn in the path. They would have easily lost sight of Sparx completely if not for the light he was giving off, revealing his location in the darkened forest. Eventually they were able to catch up with him when Sparx finally ran into a dead end at a wooden shrine surrounded by trees.

"This is... the shrine where I fought Silver before?" Crystal said in bewilderment. Sparx had, in fact, stopped directly in front of the shrine and was staring at it with his mouth open slightly as if confused by something himself.

"Geez, Sparx... what's gotten into you all of a sudden?" Ethan asked his pokemon. Sparx didn't respond. Instead, he suddenly ran around behind the shrine. As he did, another pokemon suddenly ran out from behind it. This new pokemon was also a pichu. An ordinary-colored pichu, but with something else that was off about it.

"Huh... never seen a pichu with an ear like that before," Ethan remarked, noticing the odd spikes on the pichu's ear. The newcomer seemed more interested in Sparx than the trainers gazing at it in confusion. Sparx was hiding behind the shrine now, staring at the spiky-earred pichu from behind the wooden post holding it up.

After staring at each other for a moment, the two pichus suddenly pointed at each other and blurted out, "-YOU'RE DIFFERENT!-"

"-Your ear is all spiky and weird!-"

"-Your color is completely off!-"

"-Oh yeah! Well I'm a lot stronger than you are!-"

"-Prove it!-"

The two pichu growled at each other and electricity sparked from their cheeks. The group of trainers quickly stepped back as it seemed like the two pichu were about to go at it. The spiky-earred pichu then suddenly glanced toward the shrine. She immediately stopped producing electricity and turned to glare at Sparx.

"-Not here,-" she said, then turned and ran off, again ignoring the trainers as she ran past them.

"-Hey! Quit running away!-" Sparx growled in frustration and then took off after the other pichu.

Ethan groaned. "Oh, come on!"

"At this rate, we'll be chasing these two around all night," Crystal said in dismay.

"Should I try trapping them with a whirlpool?" Angela asked, reaching for a pokeball.

"NO!" Angela and Ethan shouted in unison.

"Hmph..." Angela dejectedly returned the pokeball to her belt. "It was just a suggestion..."

The trainers once again took off running, but this time they didn't have to go very far. The two pichu had come to a stop when they had reached the edge of a pond, the very same pond that normally separated the Goldenrod side of the forest from the Ilex side. Crossing the pond was a shortcut, but going around the edge was usually impossible due to the line of trees.

However, thanks to the antics of Angela's pokemon earlier, there was now a path going directly around the pond's perimeter. On top of that, this area of the forest was much brighter due to the missing trees and the presence of the pond, creating a large hole in the canopy of leaves that were usually blocking out the light. It was at the edge of this pond where the two pichu now prepared to face off.

"Sparx! What's gotten into you!" Ethan called out to his pokemon.

"Looks like he's decided this weird-earred pichu pichu is his rival," Crystal pointed out.

"I can see that, but why?" Ethan wondered aloud.

The two pichu stared each other down, starting to produce electricity from their cheeks like they had been doing back at the shrine. The electricity continued to build in their cheeks until they each fired a blast of electricity at each other. The two blasts of electricity seemingly negated each other at first, but then the spiky-earred pichu's blast suddenly pushed through to Sparx and caused the oddly-colored pichu to cry out in pain and stagger back.

"Looks like that spiky-earred pichu is the stronger of the two, too," Crystal pointed out to Ethan. Ethan clenched a fist and shook his head.

"Not a chance! Sparx, show that pichu what you're really made of!" Ethan called out, urging his pokemon on even though he didn't know why the two pichu seemed to be at odds. "Show it your Volt Tackle technique!"

"-Gladly!-" Sparx growled, sparks shooting out of his cheeks again as he prepared to attack. Within seconds electricity was pouring out in full, flowing around his body as he took off toward the opposing pichu. The spiky-earred pichu looked surprised at first, but then grinned as electricity began to pour around her body as well.

"No way!" Ethan cried out in disbelief.

"It's like every pichu knows that move these days..." Angela muttered.

Sure enough, the spiky-earred pichu was mimicking Sparx's technique and charged toward him to counter it. Sparx continued on, undeterred, and the two pichu collided in a brilliant flash and let out surprised cries. The electricity that ran between them produced a small blast upon impact that threw both pokemon back after they had slammed each other. The spiky-earred pichu got up almost immediately after hitting the ground, but Sparx took a heavier blow and was still lying on the ground.

"Hey, Sparx! Don't let that pichu kick you around so easily!" Ethan called out to his pokemon. Sparx finally began to move at Ethan's urging, slowly standing up. He gathered his strength and turned to face his opponent.

"-Well, what do you think of that, dark one?-" The spiky-earred pichu sneered.

"-I'm not done yet... cut-ear...-" Sparx replied weakly.

"SPARX! Give it everything you've got!" Ethan yelled.

"-LIKE I WOULDN'T!-" Sparx yelled. A surge of power rose up from within him. Sparks darted out across his cheeks and soon electricity began to pour out. Several small bolts of electricity arced out across the field, quickly converging on the opposing pichu.

"-This again? Don't think for a second it'll work!-" The spiky-earred pichu yelled, then discharged a blast of her own electricity. By then, Sparx's attack had almost reached her. The spiky-earred pichu's electricity appeared more like a shield as a result, deflecting Sparx's attack to her sides.

The spiky-earred pichu's counter-attack soon began to falter, however. With his renewed strength, Sparx was easily overwhelming her. Soon the blasts of electricity pushed past her own and the spiky-earred pichu cried out in pain as the electricity began assaulting her directly.

"Nice shot, Sparx!" Ethan congratulated his pokemon. Sparx grinned. In his desparation, he was able to control his charge better than ever and kept himself from suffering any backlash. He continued pouring out the electricity, zapping the spiky-earred pichu with everything he had. But the spiky-earred pichu still had a determined look on her face. She wasn't done just yet.

"-If I'm going down... then I'll take you with me!-" the pichu growled. Suddenly both electricity became engulfed in a red aura and Sparx looked like he was in pain.

"Whoa! What kind of technique is that!" Ethan yelled in shock.

"A pain split technique," Angela answered, shuddering. "It's a technique commonly used by ghost-type pokemon..."

"What!" Crystal cried out in disbelief. "How does a pichu know a technique like THAT!"

"HOW SHOULD I KNOW!" Angela yelled in response, surprising Crystal and Ethan with her outburst. Realizing she made such an outburst she quickly tried to correct herself. "I-I mean... who cares about ghost pokemon anyway!" she said, turning around in a huff.

_How could someone who obviously hates ghost pokemon have been so interested in finding dead bodies before?_ Crystal wondered.

The battle between the two pichus continued to rage on. A strange red aura surrounded both combatants in addition to the sparks of electricity flying everywhere. Both pichu were in immense pain and growing weaker as the battle wore on, but neither refused to give in. This went on until, finally, both pichu collapsed and the electricity dispersed in an instant.

"A draw... damn, that spiky-earred pichu had a lot of fight in it..." Ethan mumbled in disbelief as he recalled his fallen pokemon. After clipping Sparx's pokeball back to his belt, he turned toward the other pichu and stared at its fallen form in disbelief. "But for a pichu to have a technique like that... just what is it?"

"That's not the only thing odd about this one," Angela pointed out tersely. "Doesn't it seem odd that they were about to face off back at the shrine, but then chose to come here?"

"Now that you mention it, the way that pichu acted around the shrine was kinda odd for a wild pokemon..." Crystal said, nodding in agreement. "Maybe we should..."

"Hey! Is everything okay over there!" a girl's voice called out to them. Crystal looked across the pond and scowled when she saw who it was. A brown-haired girl wearing wearing a red shirt, blue overalls, and a white cabbie hat.

_HER!_ Crystal thought in disbelief. _But why is she..._

"Oh! Hey! It's Lyra!" Ethan said, recognizing the girl. Crystal slumped over when he raised his hand to wave to her. "We're all fine over here!"

"Hehe! Why am I not surprised that YOU'RE involved in this?" Lyra asked Ethan, giggling as she waved back to him. "When I saw that light just now I thought for sure the forest's guardian returned!"

"Naw, just a pichu..." Ethan replied, glancing toward the still-unconscious opponent.

Lyra blinked and then looked toward the fallen pichu as well. "A pichu...? That's weird," she said. "Just wait a second! I'll be right over!"

"Great..." Crystal muttered to herself, watching in dismay as Lyra circled around the pond via the path Angela's Slicey carved out before.

"Who's she?" Angela asked her. Crystal let out a sigh.

"She's... a friend of Ethan's, and occassionally helps out Professor Elm," Crystal explained to her. Angela looked at Crystal after she finished, expecting more, but Crystal left it at that.

"Umm... but she obviously bothers you though, so..."

"None of your business!" Crystal shot back, blushing slightly. Angela blinked and then rolled her eyes.

As Lyra finally came across the pond, she finally noticed Crystal. "Oh! Hey Crystal!" Lyra called out cheerfully, waving to her. "You're here too? And... umm..." she looked to Angela next, trying to piece together who she was.

"Angela," Angela said to her. "I'm Crystal's bodyguard."

"Ehhh! Bodyguard!" Lyra said in disbelief. "What does Crystal need a bodyguard for?"

"Top secret," Angela replied, nodding to herself.

"Oh... umm... okay..." Lyra said, blinking in confusion. She then turned and looked at the fallen pichu still lying facedown in the charred grass. "This is the pichu? It's so cute! What did you get into a fight with her for?"

"Beats me," Ethan replied with a shrug. "My own pichu, Sparx, ran into her and suddenly sparks were flying..."

"Aww! They love each other!"

"Umm... no, I mean literally," Ethan said to her.

"Oh..." Lyra replied, then looked at the pichu again. "Still... it's odd that a wild pichu would be around here..."

"Yeah," Ethan said, nodding in agreement. "On top of that, she seemed protective of that shrine here and knew how to use Pain Split." After considering this for a moment, he added, "Think the professor would be interested in this one?"

"I think you might be right," Lyra replied, then took out a pokeball from a travel bag slung over her shoulder. She held out the pokeball as if she was about to use it on the spiky-earred pichu, but then turned and looked around at everyone else.

"Anyone have any objections to me catching this one?" she asked. Everyone but Crystal shook their head. Crystal didn't particularly care either but couldn't muster a response. Lyra took her silence to mean she didn't have any qualms with her capturing the spiky-earred pichu either, though, and proceeded to press the button on her pokeball. A red beam fired out and struck the pichu, then pulled it inside and locked shut instantly.

"There we go!" she said. She clipped the pokeball to her belt and then turned to Ethan. "That reminds me! That egg hasn't hatched yet, are you sure you didn't want to look after it yourself?"

"Naw. Babysitting an egg doesn't suit me," Ethan replied.

"Ah, right... what now then?" Lyra pondered aloud. "It's getting kinda late... Oh!" Lyra grinned and clapped her hands together. "Why don't you all stay the night at my grandparent's place? I'm sure they wouldn't mind!"

"Well that's fine with me but..." Ethan glanced back at Crystal. "I think Crystal really wanted to..."

"IT'S FINE!" Crystal yelled suddenly, interrupting him. Ethan blinked in confusion and scratched the back of his head.

"Well let's go then before it gets too dark," Lyra suggested. "Otherwise we might get attacked by a police officer!" Ethan nodded in agreement and the two of them started to make their way around the pond.

"Attacked by a police officer?" Angela asked Crystal, blinking in confusion.

"Yeah, the police are pretty bad for just attacking any stranger they see out and about late at night," Crystal replied, letting out an exasperated sigh. "Apparently their policy is that only suspicious characters would be walking around after nightfall..."

"That's stupid..." Angela muttered. "They're never around when you need them and when they are around they're beating up you instead..."

That's one way of looking at it, Crystal thought. "Anyway, we're falling behind. So let's get going already," she said, then started off after Ethan and Lyra. Angela shrugged and placed her hands behind her head as she followed behind Crystal. After walking for a moment, Angela spoke up again.

"So is there any reason you don't like her aside from your jealousy?"

"I"M NOT JEALOUS!"

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: I don't know if anyone noticed, but this actually isn't the first time Lyra appeared in this story. She actually made a brief cameo in the first chapter.<p>

Anyway, sorry about the delay. Was having trouble with the direction for this chapter and came down with a bit of a cold. Speaking of delays, I probably won't be able to get a chapter up this coming weekend. I tend to do most of my work on the weekend and I'm actually going away for the weekend. Whether or not I'll even be able to work on the next chapter this weekend will depend entirely on whether or not I can get my old laptop working again.


	10. Chapter 10: No Rest at the Rival's Place

**Chapter 10**

**No Rest at the Rival's Place**

Crystal slowly opened her eyes. Sunlight was filtering in from a nearby window and her pokegear, laid out next to her, was telling her it was already well past eight in the morning. With a yawn and a stretch, Crystal pulled herself out of her sleeping bag and stood up. She then walked over to the window and looked outside.

Out in the backyard, several pokemon could be seen frolicking about. Most were fairly weak-looking pokemon. A grass-type pokemon called hoppip floated around the yard. Several bug pokemon like weedle and caterpie could be seen crawling around. Magikarp splashed around in a small pond. The only oddity was a pink blob known as Ditto sleeping peacefully next to a red-furred, vulpine pokemon known as Flareon.

"It's just like being home..." Crystal said quietly to herself. A smile began to cross her lips until she saw a certain brown-haired walked out into the yard carrying a bucket of pokemon food. Crystal's smile quickly faded when she saw her.

_Why does it have to be HER grandparent's place!_

* * *

><p>While Lyra was outside, Crystal quickly got washed and dressed in hopes of getting down to the kitchen before she came back inside. To her dismay, she was already back by then. In the kitchen there was a table off to the side. Lyra sat at one end of the table, with Ethan sitting directly next to her along the side. Angela was seated at the opposite end of the table from Lyra. Crystal was fuming silently as she took the closest seat to Angela.<p>

"You were almost late to breakfast," Angela chided her. Crystal ignored her, though. She seemed to be more focused on Lyra.

"It was the weirdest thing but the other day, those two had an egg!" Lyra said cheerfully as she was in the midst of telling Ethan a story.

"An egg, huh? I'd be pretty surprised if two of my pokemon had an egg," he replied idly. He didn't seem to be nearly as much interest in the story as Lyra did. He was waiting impatiently for breakfast, which an old woman was busy cooking up in front of the stove.

"Ehh... my pokemon better not do anything weird..." Angela muttered. "They're all water-type, so I'm pretty sure they're all compatible..."

"That reminds me! I should show you guys a really weird egg we picked up recently!" Lyra said excitedly. "Well, after breakfast at least."

"It's so nice to have guests once in a while," the old woman said. She expertly flipped a pancake over in the frying pan to ensure it cooked evenly before turning to the group and smiling. "So you're all friends of our granddaughter Lyra, then?"

"That's..." Ethan began to respond, but Lyra cut him off.

"Ethan's my future husband!" Lyra replied enthusiastically, causing both Ethan and Crystal to twitch noticeably.

"Wow. Forward AND energetic," Angela noted, then turned to Crystal with a smirk on her face. "You don't stand a chance."

"Shut. Up." Crystal growled.

"W-well maybe that's going a bit too far..." Ethan said, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

Lyra pouted. "But you promised, remember!" she said sharply.

Ethan sighed. "When I was five..."

Angela giggled. "Childhood marriage proposal too? You should probably just find another guy."

"I'm telling you, you've got the wrong idea!" Crystal shot back.

"Now, now! There's no need for such a fuss at breakfast!" Lyra's grandmother said to them. "The pancakes are ready now."

The elderly woman turned the stove off and then used a spatula to move the remaining pancake, now cooked, from the frying pan and onto the top of a stack of pancakes sitting on a nearby plate. She then took the plate over to the table and sat it down in the middle. It was a decent sized stack of pancakes, easily more than enough to go around.

"Eat up, everyone!" she said as she set them down and then backed away from the table.

Everyone immediately dug in, but Lyra and Angela did so with more gusto than Ethan and Crystal. Both seemed to be lacking energy. Though, as they began eating, Ethan was quickly regaining his energy. When he was finally full, he quickly stood up from the table and stretched his arms.

"Ahhh! That was good!" he said, satisfied. "I feel recharged and ready to face that gym leader now!"

"EH! You're not leaving already, are you!" Lyra asked him in disbelief. Crystal felt a smirk form on her lips. As much as being at that daycare was annoying her, it seemed it would be a short lived stay.

"Well why not?" Ethan asked, but then he remembered. "Oh, right, that weird egg?"

"Right!" Lyra said, then quickly got up from the table. "I'll go and get it!" Lyra then bolted out of the kitchen and returned moments later carrying a strange blue egg with a glowing red core. The core of the egg almost seemed to be pulsating.

"This egg washed up on a shore in Sinnoh," Lyra explained as she held up the egg for Ethan to see. "It got passed around a lot after that. Eventually it ended up in Professor Oak's hands and he left it here, hoping it'd hatch. I bet it'll hatch into some kind of water-type pokemon... Oh!"

Lyra smiled and turned to Angela. "That's right! You're a water trainer, aren't you? Maybe it would be better off in your hands?" Ethan and Crystal immediately started shaking their heads, but Lyra didn't seem to take notice.

"Sure! I'll take it!" Angela replied enthusiastically. She immediately got up from the table and took the egg from Lyra. "I wonder what it will hatch into?"

"There's pokemon that can be found in deep ocean waters that can't be found anywhere near land. It might be something like that," Lyra suggested with a shrug. "Anyway, so you're all heading to Goldenrod now, right?" she then asked them.

"Yes!" Crystal quickly blurted out in response, then clasped her hands together. "It was... GREAT staying the night here, but we really need to get going!"

"That's fine. I've decided to go with you!" Lyra replied, smiling as always. The room went silent when she made this announcement, save for the sound of china clinking together as her grandmother gathered plates from the table.

"Always good for children to go out exploring together, I say," the old woman uttered, humming quietly to herself as she gathered up the dishes.

"Ah, well, the more the merrier!" Ethan finally said. "I mean, we might as well travel together while we can, right?"

"Right!" Lyra said in agreement. Crystal just sighed.

_Why can't we just be rid of her?_ Crystal wondered.

* * *

><p>With the party size increased once more, the group of four trainers set out from the Route 34 daycare. Save for Lyra, the group walked in silence. Lyra was busy chatting away with Ethan, but Ethan was lost in his own world as he contemplated his upcoming gym battle. Crystal didn't speak up at all until she noticed the way Angela was carrying the egg she received from Lyra.<p>

"Angela, should you really be caring that in the open?" Crystal asked her. "Anyone can tell that's not a normal pokemon egg. It might even contain a legendary pokemon..." she said to her.

"I never thought of that," Angela said. She held up the egg so she could take a look at it. The red core of the egg was still pulsating. Each time it glowed, the egg vibrated. While normal pokemon eggs might start to shake when they were close to hatching, the strange egg Angela had received seemed more like it was alive itself.

"Maybe the egg will transform into some kind of super cool legendary water-type pokemon?" Angela mused. She imagined the egg hatching into a mini-Kyogre and couldn't decide how she felt about that. On one hand, having her own Kyogre would be cool. On the other, Kyogre was one of two pokemon responsible for causing massive damage to her home city of Sootopolis.

"What to do... that kind of power could be bad, but on the other hand it could make me unstoppable... hmm..."

Crystal narrowed her eyes at her. "If it really is going to be a legendary pokemon, isn't there someone you else you should be giving that to?" When Crystal pointed that out to her, Angela hung her head sadly. She knew what Crystal said was true.

"W-well I'll just wait until the egg hatches and then contact them!" Angela said defensively.

"Contact who?" Lyra asked, finally taking notice of the private conversation that Angela and Crystal were having.

"None of your business!" Crystal replied tersely.

"Ohh... must be bodyguard-related stuff, right?" Lyra said quietly, then grinned. "Well, don't worry! I won't say a thing!"

_You don't get it at all!_ Crystal thought, rolling her eyes.

Lyra then suddenly stopped in her tracks and stroked her chin thoughtfully. "But now that I think about it... that makes sense. For her to need a bodyguard, of course she's going to be wrapped up in the legendary pokemon somehow..."

"Like I said before, even I don't know why I need one!" Crystal shot back. She then pointed toward Goldenrod City, which now lay ahead of them. "And look! Ethan's already gotten way ahead of us! If you stop now, you'll definitely lose him!"

"Wh-what!" Lyra looked to where Crystal was pointing and saw that Ethan had already reached the city, seemingly unaware that the girls weren't with him anymore. "Ethan! Wait up!" she called out, then took off running after him.

To Angela's surprise, though, Crystal didn't run off with her. "Aren't you going to go after Ethan too?" she asked her. Crystal shook her head. "Huh? Why not?"

"Ethan will probably be going straight to the gym, and I don't need to see the gym battle. I've already battled Whitney once before," Crystal explained to her. "Actually, Angela, there was something I was hoping you could help me with..."

Angela blinked. "Huh?"

* * *

><p>Crystal's request lead to her waiting patiently outside the Goldenrod GTS. After arriving in Goldenrod, Angela wanted to go straight to the GTS to trade her onix. Ethan and Lyra had already gone to the gym, or at least Crystal assumed. After Ethan went off ahead, the group had remained split up. Lyra and Ethan went one way, while Crystal and Angela went to the GTS.<p>

"I wonder if I should have stopped her..." Crystal said quietly to herself. Letting out a sigh, she walked over to the edge of the pier and leaned against the railing. "I just hope that onix will at least get a good trainer. Even so, at the very least I should have convinced her to hide th egg."

Crystal pictured all the trainers that would be inside the building, eying the strange egg Angela was carrying. Among all those trainers, she was sure there was someone who wouldn't hesitate to try stealing it. Anyone could tell the egg is special. Though it also occurred to her that Angela was probably the most suspicious trainer in there.

"Even so, I can't see Angela being a thief," she mumbled, eyebrows furrowing as she thought about her. "Come to think of it, I don't know much about Angela. She seems pretty ordinary. Aside from lacking in morals a bit. Maybe I should try being a bit friendlier with her?" Letting out a sigh, she added, "It does seem like I'm stuck with her afterall. And Lyra..."

Crystal frowned. Anyone could tell she didn't like Lyra. It wasn't because of the childhood marriage promise, though. In fact, when they were younger both girls had pressured Ethan into promising to marry them. Crystal still even liked Ethan. But neither she, nor Ethan, took the proposal seriously anymore. Crystal knew she was being silly back then and only forced Ethan to make the promise out of jealousy.

Lyra, however, was still holding onto that promise five years later. The way she clings to Ethan at times had become annoying to Crystal. Ethan, on the other hand, didn't seem to think of girls at all and especially wasn't interested in marriage. Like many boys his age, Ethan was only interested in pokemon and battling.

"Next time I see her alone, I'll definitely confront her about that..." Crystal said to herself

"Confront who about what?"

Crystal whirled around and came face to face with Angela. She was still carrying the odd egg in her arms and giving Crystal a curious look.

"N-nevermind," Crystal replied, shaking her head. "Were you able to make that trade?"

"Yep!" Angela replied, then held up an ordinary looking pokeball and grinned. "It's a foreign pokemon, too! I don't know anything about it and it looks kinda weird now, but I bet it'll evolve into something really cool!"

"A foreign pokemon? I guess that isn't that odd since its a global trade," Crystal said. "So what kind of pokemon is it?"

Angela put the pokeball away and stuck her tongue out at crystal. "You'll see soon enough! I'll use it when we train."

Crystal nodded. That was the favor she had asked Angela for. Before fighting Whitney, she wanted to make sure she was ready. In particular, she had been making use of the pokedex she had received from Professor Oak recently and noticed her pokemon knew attacks that she didn't realize they knew as they weren't exactly standard for their species. She was hoping to practice those techniques against Angela.

"Well I guess that means we're ready anyway," she said to Angela. "Let's go train just outside the city. On the edge of Route 34." Angela nodded in agreement and followed Crystal out of the city. Still carrying the egg with her instead of putting it somewhere safe.

* * *

><p>Crystal and Angela quickly made their way out of the city again, stopping as soon as they were just outside on Route 34. The two then distanced themselves and took a pokeball in their hands each, preparing to start the training battle. Angela had finally set the egg down as well so she could more easily switch pokemon if need be.<p>

"Even though this is just for training, I don't want you holding back any!" Crystal called out to Angela.

"That's fine by me!" Angela replied.

"Then I'll lead off with the pokemon I'm counting on to beat Whitney's Clefairy!" Crystal held out her pokeball and pressed the button. "Hooty, I choose you!" she called out, releasing Hooty the hoothoot from her pokeball. Hooty blinked tiredly and let out a yawn.

"And I'll lead with my new pokemon!" Angela said as she held out her own pokeball. "Oshin, I choose you!" The pokeball in Angela's hand opened and released a small, bipedal pokemon onto the field. The pokemon has a light blue body with a shell on its chest, dark blue feet and tail, white hands, and a white face that appeared to have freckles.

"I see why she said that thing is weird now," Crystal said to herself, blinking in confusion. "That thing looks like a clown... wonder if my pokedex has any information on it?" Crystal then reached into her pocket and took out her pokedex to check.

"Oshawott, the Sea Otter pokemon," the pokedex read. "It fights using the scalchop on its stomach. In response to an attack, it retaliates immediately by slashing."

"So it can actually use that shell as a slashing weapon..." Crystal mused, then pocketed her pokedex. "Okay, Hooty, looks like this is the perfect target to try out that technique! Feather Dance!"

"-Oh, joy. Excuse me while I shed my precious feathers for you,-" Hooty said dryly. As usual, in spite of her complaints, Hooty followed through on the attack. She jumped into the air and started spinning around, unleashing a barrage of feathers at Oshin that clung to his body. Oshin looked down at the feathers covering his body in confusion.

"Oshin, nevermind those feathers! Get in there and use Razor Shell!" Angela commanded while pointing a finger toward Hooty. Oshin blinked and glanced back at her.

"-Oh, so that's my new trainer now? She's kinda cute.-" Oshin said, though his face remained expressionless. Grabbing his seashell from his stomach, he then turned to face his enemy.

"-Anyway, prepare to taste my shell blade, fiend.-" Oshin said as he raised his shell over his head. He dashed toward Hooty and made a downward slash, but Hooty had plenty of time to prepare and made a short hop back to avoid it. Making only a short hop turned out to be a bad idea as Oshin simply followed her and followed up with an upward slash that knocked Hooty flat against the ground. It was a hard blow that took Hooty a few seconds to recovery from.

"Good thing Oshin's attack was weakened. Now we can show it our own power!" Crystal said confidently. "Hooty, Uproar!" Hooty quickly stood up and took a deep breath.

"-SCREWWWWWW YOUUUUUUUU!-" She yelled at Oshin. The sudden blast of sound threw him back through the air and he hit the ground hard. After having the wind knocked out of him, Oshin slowly climbed back onto his feet, shook his head, then showed the first sign of emotion since being released from his pokeball. Surprise. He couldn't believe how much power Hooty's attack was.

"That IS powerful..." Angela noted quietly. "Well we're not backing down yet! Oshin, use Razor Shell again!"

Oshin quickly dashed forward while Hooty was drawing in another breath to continue her attack. He knew he didn't want to risk taking a second blow at this point. Holding his shell low, he moved in and made another upward slash that sliced up the front of hooty's body in a spray of feathers. Hooty immediately collapsed, leaving Oshin the victor.

"That's a surprisingly strong pokemon," Crystal said to Angela as she recalled Hooty. "Even though you just got it in a trade it took down Hooty pretty easily. And while under the effects of Feather Dance, too."

Angela nodded and grinned smugly. "Definitely worth trading an onix for!"

"-So THAT's what he meant by wanting a solid snake...-" Oshin mused.

"Well let's keep this going!" Crystal said. She put Hooty's pokeball back on her belt and then took another one in her hand, held it out, and pressed the button. "Stan, I choose you!" The pokeball opened and a red beam fired out. The beam materialized into Stan the stantler. Stan snorted and narrowed his gaze at Angela when he realized who his opponent was.

"Okay, that was a good workout Oshin but you can rest for now!" Angela said to her pokemon before recalling him and returning his pokeball to her belt. She then took another pokeball in her hand and held it out.

"Slicey will take this one on! Go, Slicey!" Angela called out, releasing Slicey the staryu from its pokeball. Slicey stretched its limbs when it appeared, showing a bit of flexibility despite its stiff-looking body.

"Slicey, you know the drill." Angela smirked. "Or maybe I should say the saw! Rapid Spin!" Slicey nodded its uppermost limb and then jumped in the air. It immediately began spinning and hovering low, then shot toward Stan.

"Stantler, try hitting it with Megahorn!" Crystal called out. Stan lowered his head and his antlers began to give off a sickly green glow. He was too slow in making the attack, though, and Slicey moved straight past him and slashed him across his right flank. Stan groaned and staggered to the side, but managed to remain standing.

"Looks like your stantler could use a bit more practice with that technique!" Angela said to Crystal. Stan snorted and glared at her.

"That's kinda the point of the training," Crystal pointed out to Angela.

"You'll need to do better than that, then. Slicey, keep it up! Rapid Spin!" Slicey immediately began to turn to come around for another attack. Realizing the attack was coming, Stan quickly moved to the side. Slicey flew by him, missing entirely, but this put it in front of Stan now. Stan readied himself, lowering his head as Slicey began turning again to make yet another pass.

"Stan, one more time! Megahorn!" Stan's antlers began to give off that sickly green glow again, signifying the bug-type attack he was using. Slicey was again flying to the side of Stan but this time he was ready. Stan quickly moved to take the attack head-on and, at the last possible moment, made a powerful upward motion with his head. His antlers struck Slicey from below and launched it high up into the air.

"ALRIGHT! Nice shot, Stan!" Crystal cheered. Angela looked up in disbelief and then gasped. Crystal blinked and then looked up as well and saw what had made Angela gasp. Stan had flung Slicey straight up... and into the underside of a passing, wild fearow. Both pokemon plummeted and nearly hit Stan when they smashed into the ground, landing only a few feet away from him.

"Wh-what just...?" Crystal stammered in confusion.

"Wow. That's probably about as likely as being struck by lightning," Angela noted. "And regular lightning. Not pokemon-related. I mean, how often is an evolved flying-type pokemon just going to fly directly overhead like that? The sky's a pretty big place, you know, and..."

"NEVERMIND HOW UNLIKELY IT IS!" Crystal screamed at her, flailing her arms. "It just happened! And that fearow probably isn't going to be too happy about that, either!"

As if on cue, the wild fearow suddenly got up and shook its head. It then looked around at everyone gathered. It glared at Stan when it spotted him, then spread its wings and let out a loud, menacing cry.

"Understatement," Angela said, nodding to Crystal. "It's definitely pissed." Then, to her surprise, she noticed Slicey get up and stagger away from the enraged fearow. After that hard blow from Stan, and having a fearow fall on top of it, it was still somehow conscious. But just barely.

"Thank you for pointing out the obvious," Crystal said dryly, then noticed Stan was still conscious. "Angela, let's hit it at the same time! Stan, Tackle!"

"Alright then! Slicey, Rapid Spin!"

Stan charged forward, catching the wild fearow off guard by charging straight into its exposed underbelly. While Stan was still pressed against it, Slicey managed to shake off the impact from falling and quickly jumped into the air and began spinning. Slicey flew into the fearow from behind, causing the wild bird pokemon to shriek in pain as Slicey grinded into its backside. It couldn't flee the attack, however, as Stan was holding the fearow firmly in place.

After Slicey had been grinding into it for a few moments, Crystal finally decided the fearow had had enough. "Okay, Stan, let it go," she said to her pokemon. Stan slowly backed away and Slicey did likewise. The fearow fell to the ground, panting heavily. From the ground it glared at Stan, still the only attacked it could see. After considering its options, the fearow suddenly stood up, began flapping its wings, and took off into the air.

Crystal sighed in relief as the wild fearow quickly fled the scene. "That was unexpected, but at least we were able to chase it off without any problems."

"Hmph. It wasn't anything major," Angela said, shrugging. "So, should we keep going?"

Crystal shook her head. "I think that's enough. I'm pretty confident I can take on Whitney now."

"If you say so," Angela said, then held up Slicey's pokeball. "Slicey, that's it for now then. Return!" Angela pressed the button and recalled Slicey, then returned its pokeball to her belt.

"You too, Stan. Now that you've gotten the hang of Megahorn we can put it to good use against Whitney. I already know just how to use it!" Crystal said to her pokemon. Stan nodded to her in agreement and was then recalled into his pokeball.

"Guess now we can head to the gym," Crystal said, then glanced toward Angela's egg. "Before that, though, maybe we should get you something to carry that egg in..."

"Can't I just use a pokeball?" Angela asked. Crystal blinked and then let out a sigh.

"I guess you COULD, but it'll take longer to hatch like that," Crystal said. Without another word, Angela took out an empty net ball and tapped it against the egg. The egg wobbled like it was made out of jelly at the tap before being sucked into the pokeball. Being an egg, there was naturally no struggling.

"Should really just get a backpack for it..." Crystal said, then shrugged. "Oh well. Let's go see how Ethan did at the gym!" Angela nodded in agreement. The two girls then made their way back into the city, where Crystal's next gym battle waited.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes: Originally this chapter was going to take place in full at the daycare, but then I realized I really didn't have any events planned there and decided to move things along.<p>

Bit of character development for this chapter once things move along. And Angela has a new pokemon. And an egg. I think she might be a bit disappointed when she sees the supposed legendary pokemon that hatches from it, though.

And I'm sure no one really cares about the wedding I attended last week, but I just want to make one quick note here. It introduced a new term to me. "Candy Buffet". This term exists and I had the chance to partake in such.


End file.
